'  *  *  yNN'  \v  'X  X*  vC'vV^.'^T  V\\^X 

■  *•;  V\-:.*\  V  . . 


\VV  •>  " 


§§! 

v;'\  -.' 

w>V 

1 

SSvv 

V^V\ 

«W 

IUN  18  191S 
'^OfilCAL 


"S 

DS  135  . G33  H47  1918 
Hess,  Moses,  1812-1875. 

Rome  and  Jerusalem 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


A  STUDY  IN  JEWISH  NATIONALISM 


BY, 

MOSES  HESS 


of 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  GERMAN 
WITH  INTRODUCTION  AND  NOTES 

By  MEYER  WAXMAN,  Ph.  D. 


NEW  YORK 

BLOCH  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

“the  JEWISH  BOOK  CONCERN  ** 

1918 


Copyright,  1918,  by 
BLOCH  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


PRINTED  BY  PUBLISHERS  PRINTING  COMPANY, "NEW  YORK,  U.  S.  A. 


TRANSLATORS  PREFACE 


It  was  Ruskin  who  divided  all  books  into  two 
classes :  into  books  of  the  hour  and  books  for  all 
time.  To  the  first  belong  the  great  majority  of 
books ;  to  the  second,  the  few  and  chosen.  To  the 
latter  belongs  Rome  and  Jerusalem.  It  is  as  timely 
to-day  as  it  was  fifty-six  years  ago,  when  it  first  saw 
the  light  of  day;  and,  in  a  sense,  even  more  timely, 
for  Rome  and  Jerusalem  belongs  to  the  very  few 
books  which  are  written  in  advance  of  their  time. 

To-day,  when  Zionism  has  grown  from  a  mere 
dream  in  the  minds  of  a  few,  to  a  great  ideal  which 
is  the  goal  of  a  great  organization,  and  Jewish 
Nationalism  has  become  a  mighty  force  in  Jewish 
life,  the  translator  feels  confident  that  an  English 
version  of  Rome  and  Jerusalem ,  the  herald  of 
Nationalism  and  trumpet  of  Zionism,  will  certainly 
find  a  welcome  reception  among  those  to  whom  the 
future  of  the  Jewish  people  is  a  matter  of  deep  con¬ 
cern.  For  the  book  bears  a  message  to  the  Zionist 
and  non-Zionist  alike.  To  the  first  it  supplies  the 
the  philosophic  basis  and  the  depth  of  thought  which 
are  essential  for  the  conception  as  well  as  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  his  ideal.  To  the  second  it  furnishes  a  broader 
view  of  Judaism  and  of  the  Jewish  problem  and  its 
solution. 


5 


6 


TRANSLATOR’S  PREFACE 


The  translation  has  been  a  labor  of  love.  My 
thanks  are  due  to  the  Publishers,  who  have  encour¬ 
aged  me  to  undertake  the  work,  and  especially  to  my 
friend,  Dr.  B.  A.  Elzas,  who  read  the  manuscript 
and  offered  valuable  suggestions. 

Meyer  Waxman. 


New  York,  April,  1918. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Translator's  Introduction . 9 

Moses  Hess  and  His  Time . 9 

Life  of  Hess . 38 

The  Philosophy  of  Hess . 24 

Author's  Preface . 35 

First  Letter. — The  return  home  —  Jewish  women  —  The 
source  of  the  historical  religion — Family  love — Mater 
dolorosa  . . 43 

Second  Letter. — Thoughts  on  death  and  resurrection — 
Family  tombs — Kindred  souls — Jewish  and  Hindu  saints 
— Schopenhauer — The  end  of  days — The  Sabbath  of 
History . 46 

Third  Letter. — Immortality — Rabbi  Jochanan — Nachman- 
ides  —  Messianic  travails  —  Pater  noster  —  Solidarity — 

The  call  of  France  and  the  rumbling  of  the  reaction¬ 
aries  . 50 

Fourth  Letter.  —  German  Anti-Semitism  —  Patriotic  ro¬ 
manticists  and  philosophic  bookdealers — Otto  Wigand — 
Berthold  Auerbach — Moleschott — Dr.  Gallavardin — Re¬ 
form  and  Jewish  noses  —  A  photographic  picture — 
Hebrew  prayers  —  Patriotism  —  My  grandfather  —  Our 
Mother  Rachel — National  sorrow — The  Black  Sabbath  56 


Fifth  Letter. — Retrospect — The  Damascus  Affair — A  cry 
of  anguish — Mamserbilbul,  i.e.,  Blood  Accusation — Hep, 

Hep  —  The  escape  into  France  —  Arnold  Ruge  —  Na¬ 
poleon — An  honest  German — Teutomaniacs — Jefferson 
— Fatherlands  and  Sovereigns — Ubi  bene  ibi  Patria — 

The  Jewish  incognito — The  religion  of  death — Raise 
your  standard  high,  my  people . 67 

Sixth  Letter. — The  noble  representatives  of  the  German 
spirit — Patriotic  Jews — The  historian  Graetz — Mercier’s 
Essai  sur  la  Litterature  Juive — Autumn  and  Spring 
equinoxes  of  universal  history  and  its  storms — Sabbatai 
Zevi — Chasidim — Natural  and  historical  religion — The 
Jewish  Mother — Victor  Hugo — Boerne,  Baruch,  Itzig  .  78 

7 


8 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Seventh  Letter. — The  Reform  trick  and  the  uncritical 
reaction — Luther  and  Mendelssohn — The  rationalistic 
double — The  key  to  the  religion  of  the  future — The 
three  epochs  in  the  development  of  the  Jewish  spirit — 
Restoration  of  the  Jewish  State . 92 

Eighth  Letter. — The  Neo-Hebraic  literature — Luzzato, 
Rappoport,  Frankel,  Krochmal,  Sachs  and  Heine  on 
Judah  Halevi — Mendelssohn  and  the  Modernists — Schorr 
— Sectarians  without  sects — Salvador — Fusionists  and 
Freemasons  —  Hirsch  —  The  pretended  calling  of  the 
Jew  in  exile . .  106 

Ninth  Letter. — A  dilemma — The  sacred  history  of  man¬ 
kind — Our  allies — The  unity  of  the  human  genus — Races 
and  folk  types — The  organism  of  mankind  .  .  .  .118 

Tenth  Letter. — Another  dilemma — Experimental  sciences 
— Philosophy  and  Religion — Progress  and  periodic  cir¬ 
culation— A  genetic  comparison  of  the  organic,  cosmic 
life  with  the  social — Moral  necessity  or  holiness — Epochs 
of  social  evolution:  the  paleontological  times  of  the  for¬ 
mation  of  the  embryo,  birth  period  and  birth  travail, 
age  of  maturity . 127 

Eleventh  Letter. — Regenerated  Judaism  and  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  cult — Two  thousand  year  yearning  of  the  nation 
for  a  new  center  in  Zion — Patriotic  songs  and  prayers — 

An  old  legend — Signs  of  the  times — The  time  of  return 
approaches — The  Eastern  Question  and  the  Jews — A 


Frenchman’s  enthusiastic  appeal . 141 

Twelfth  Letter. — The  beginning  of  the  end — Solidarity  of 
the  Jews  —  Philanthropic  illusions  —  The  social  animal 
kingdom — The  nurses  of  progress — The  faithful  watch¬ 
men  of  the  sacred  sepulchre  of  Jewish  nationality — 

The  last  catastrophe . 160 

Epilogue  : 

I.  Hellenes  and  Hebrews . 179 

II.  Christ  and  Spinoza . 186 

III.  The  Genetic  View  of  the  World . 211 

IV.  The  Last  Antagonism . 216 

V.  The  Last  Race  Rule . 224 

VI.  A  Chapter  of  History . 227 

Notes . 235 


TRANSLATORS  INTRODUCTION 


Moses  Hess  and  His  Time 

Among  the  many  notable  Jews  which  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century  produced,  who  have  profoundly  in¬ 
fluenced  the  course  of  events  of  the  world  history  in 
general,  and  of  Jewry  in  particular,  Moses  Hess 
holds  a  prominent  place.  His  services  on  behalf  of 
the  Jewish  National  Movement,  he  having  been  the 
first  to  supply  Jewish  Nationalism  with  a  philosophic 
basis,  undoubtedly  entitle  him  to  such  a  place.  But 
his  original  contribution  to  Jewish  thought,  his  rais¬ 
ing  of  the  Jewish  view  to  the  dignity  of  a  world  view, 
elevate  him  to  a  much  higher  plane.  Hess,  like  the 
Prophets  of  old,  was  ahead  of  his  times,  and  saw 
dreams  and  visions  in  the  distant  future.  And  though 
his  own  generation  did  not  manifest  a  proper  appre¬ 
ciation  of  his  ideas,  still  as  time  passed  on  and  the 
seeds  which  he  sowed  have  gradually  borne  fruit,  and 
the  Jewish  National  Movement,  of  which  he  was  the 
Prophet,  became  a  vital  force  in  the  life  of  world 
Jewry,  the  writings  of  Hess  have  attracted  more  and 
more  attention.  It  is  especially  interesting  at  the 
present  moment,  when  we  are  in  the  grip  of  a  world 
war,  and  are  expecting  events  which  may  have  a  last¬ 
ing  effect  on  the  future  of  Jews  and  Judaism,  to 

9 


10  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


study  the  words  of  this  thinker,  to  whom  Judaism  is 
more  than  mere  dogmatism  and  Jewish  Nationalism 
more  than  a  striving  toward  the  establishment  of  a 
petty  political  State,  but  both  combined,  forming  a 
mighty  intellectual,  spiritual,  and  social  force  in  the 
life  of  humanity  in  general,  and  Jewry  in  particular. 
Yet  with  all  his  originality,  Hess  was,  after  all,  a 
child  of  his  time;  and  in  his  book  Rome  and  Jerusa¬ 
lem  are  mirrored  all  the  different  tendencies  of  the 
age,  so  that  in  order  to  grasp  its  full  importance, 
we  must  have  a  bird’s-eye  view  of  all  the  currents, 
political  and  intellectual,  which  swayed  the  general 
and  Jewish  life  of  that  period. 

The  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  a  tur¬ 
bulent  time  for  Germany.  It  was  the  period  during 
which  the  gradual  genesis  of  the  German  Empire  and 
the  birth  of  its  Constitution  took  place.  And,  as  in 
all  periods  of  generation,  struggle  was  its  chief  fea¬ 
ture.  The  foundation  for  the  strivings  toward  unity 
and  democracy  was  laid  by  Napoleon  who,  through 
his  Confederacy  of  the  South  German  States,  and 
their  model  Constitutional  government,  proved  to  the 
Germans  the  value  of  these  two  political  boons.  The 
youth  of  Germany,  responding  to  the  call  to  arms  in 
the  War  of  Liberation  against  Napoleon,  hoped  to 
liberate  Germany  not  only  from  foreign  rule,  but 
also  from  petty  tyranny  and  autocracy. 

They  were,  however,  bitterly  disappointed  in  their 
hopes.  The  Holy  Alliance,  the  dominating  spirit 
of  which  was  Metternich,  strove  with  all  the  power 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  11 


at  its  disposal  to  obstruct  these  tendencies.  It  was 
to  its  interest  to  keep  Germany  split  into  small 
States,  so  as  to  avoid  the  rise  of  the  people  against 
their  rulers.  It  therefore  attempted  to  perpetuate 
this  division  by  incorporating  it  in  the  Articles  of 
the  German  Confederation  which  were  forced  upon 
Germany  by  Metternich.  And  thus  the  struggle 
began. 

The  strugglers  were  of  two  different  types,  the 
Conservatives  or  Nationalists,  and  the  Liberals  or 
Radicals.  The  Nationalists,  led  originally  by  Turn- 
vater  Jahn  (mentioned  frequently  by  Hess  in  his  let¬ 
ters),  the  one  who  founded  the  gymnastic  societies 
known  as  Turnvereinen ,  were  extreme  chauvinists 
and  reactionary  in  their  tendencies,  with  the  excep¬ 
tion  of  their  demand  for  a  constitutional  govern¬ 
ment.  The  Liberals,  influenced  by  the  French  ideals 
of  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity,  were  mentally  of 
a  revolutionary  attitude.  In  the  thirties,  there  was 
added  to  the  political  influence  of  France  also  the 
social.  The  rise  of  a  laboring  class,  as  a  result  of 
the  development  of  industry,  brought  in  its  wake  a 
new  problem,  the  economic.  The  theories  which  at¬ 
tempt  to  find  the  solution  to  this  problem  by  pro¬ 
posing  a  change  in  the  distribution  of  wealth,  and 
later  became  known  as  Socialism,  found  many  ad¬ 
herents  in  Germany.  There  was,  of  course,  no  hard 
and  fast  line  of  division  between  the  various  tenden¬ 
cies.  All  kinds  of  dreamers  and  visionaries  found  a 
hearing.  Their  common  enemy  was  the  autocratic 
government.  Even  later,  when  Socialism  began  to 


12  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


crystallize  itself  as  a  distinct  class  movement,  it  still 
united  forces  in  the  political  struggle  with  the  Lib¬ 
erals.  The  center  of  both  wings,  the  Nationalists 
and  the  Liberals,  were  the  Universities.  It  was  the 
intellectual  class,  the  professors,  students,  writers 
of  all  stamps  and  brands,  who  were  the  leaders  in 
this  popular  struggle,  and  mostly  on  the  Liberal  side. 
The  government  sought  to  repress  the  movement, 
but  the  more  it  was  repressed,  the  more  it  spread 
among  the  masses.  The  Liberal  movement  reached 
its  height  in  the  forties,  and  culminated  in  the  Revo¬ 
lution  of  1848.  This  Revolution,  however,  ended  in 
a  failure.  It  satisfied  only  the  Nationalistic  claims. 
It  brought  Germany  a  step  nearer  to  unification, 
and  introduced  constitutional  government,  but  the 
Radicals,  who  had  expected  a  complete  overthrow 
of  Monarchy,  and  the  Socialists,  who  awaited  the 
approach  of  the  Social  Revolution,  despaired  of  their 
aims,  and  turned  to  other  activities.  Some  were  ex¬ 
iled  from  Germany;  among  them  was  Hess.  The 
trend  of  German  life  after  1848  was  more  of  a 
Nationalistic  type,  which  finally  culminated  in  the 
unification  of  Germany  in  1870. 

The  political  struggle  was  only  the  outward  ex¬ 
pression  of  an  inner  conflict  of  different  intellectual 
currents.  The  intellectual  aspect  of  Germany  in  the 
last  three  decades  of  the  first  half  of  the  century 
presented  a  veritable  eddy  of  ideas,  tendencies,  and 
spiritual  movements.  The  center  of  the  field  was 
held  by  Hegelianism.  Of  all  the  German  philosoph¬ 
ical  systems,  there  was  none  which  influenced  the 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  13 


course  of  political  and  social  events  so  profoundly 
as  this.  Hegel’s  great  contribution  to  human 
thought  is  his  application  of  the  concept  of  evolu¬ 
tion  to  life  and  thought.  His  Dialectics  is  nothing 
but  a  property  of  thought,  in  virtue  of  which  each 
particular  thought  passes  over  into  another.  And 
when  applied  to  life,  it  supplies  a  view  which  looks 
upon  each  particular  thing  as  belonging  together 
with  all  other  things.  Hegel  saw  in  history  a  con¬ 
tinual  unfolding  and  growth,  and  not  a  mere  suc¬ 
cession  of  stable  and  fixed  events. 

It  is  this  central  thought  of  Hegelianism,  which 
stirred  young  Germany  to  action,  Hegel  himself,  it 
is  true,  arrived  at  different  conclusions  in  his  politi¬ 
cal  philosophy,  and  saw  in  the  Bureaucratic  State 
the  highest  expression  of  the  Spirit,  but  his  younger 
followers  drew  opposite  conclusions  from  his  own 
philosophy.  If  history  means  growth  and  change, 
then  the  old  State  institutions  handed  down  from 
Mediaeval  times  cannot  remain  in  their  integrity,  and, 
consequently,  a  demand  for  changes  was  voiced  by 
young  Germany,  the  followers  of  the  great  philoso¬ 
pher. 

A  second  factor  in  the  intellectual  unrest  of  Ger¬ 
many  at  the  time  was  the  religious  question.  Hegel’s 
religious  philosophy,  like  his  political,  gave  rise  to 
controversies.  The  question  arose:  4<Is  religion 
compatible  with  philosophy  or  not?”  This  question 
divided  the  Hegelian  camp  into  two,  the  right  and 
left  wings.  The  height  of  the  conflict  was  reached 
with  the  appearance  of  a  book  by  David  Friedrich 


14s  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


Strauss,  The  Life  of  Jesus,  where  the  central  figure 
of  Christianity  is  stripped  of  all  its  divine  attire  and 
relegated  to  the  sphere  of  mythology.  This  book 
immediately  became  the  center  of  a  storm  which 
raised  many  bitter  controversies.  On  the  one  hand, 
it  caused  a  strong  defense  of  Christianity,  and,  on 
the  other,  it  gave  rise  to  more  and  more  extreme 
ideas  about  religion.  In  the  left  camp,  Christianity, 
and  with  it  all  religion,  was  vigorously  attacked,  and 
its  foundations  undermined. 

But  when  the  old  religious  ideals  were  being  de¬ 
throned,  something  had  to  be  put  in  its  place  to 
satisfy  the  craving  of  men  for  worship.  It  was  then 
that  Feuerbach  stepped  forth  with  his  idea  of  Man. 
The  salvation  and  elevation  of  Man  is,  according  to 
him,  to  become  the  religious  ideal.  Humanity  should 
take  the  place  of  Divinity.  These  ideas  gave  rise, 
in  the  forties,  to  the  Humanitarian  movement,  with 
its  cosmopolitan  tendencies.  But  how  really  humani¬ 
tarian  the  movement  was,  can  be  seen  from  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  Bauer,  one  of  the  leading  humanitarians, 
toward  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews.  He  pub¬ 
lished,  in  1842,  a  pamphlet  about  the  Judenfrage ,  in 
which  he  vigorously  opposes  Jewish  emancipation,  on 
the  ground  that  the  Jews,  by  adhering  to  their  re¬ 
ligion,  excluded  themselves  from  emancipation.  The 
words  of  Hess  that  “pure  human  nature,”  of  which 
the  humanitarians  boast,  is  nothing  but  “pure  Teu¬ 
tonic  nature,”  characterize  the  real  essence  of  their 
humanitarianism. 

A  third  element  in  the  intellectual  leaven  of  Ger- 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  15 


many  was  the  rise  of  the  demand  for  social  justice. 
The  growth  of  industry  in  European  countries 
brought  to  the  front  the  glaring  injustice  done  to 
the  exploited  classes  and  set  people  thinking  about 
Society  and  its  institutions.  The  resulting  theories 
were  known  as  Socialism,  Communism,  and  Anarch¬ 
ism.  They  often  conflicted  with  each  other.  Some 
came  to  the  conclusion  that,  in  order  to  remedy  the 
evil,  a  strong  socialization  of  all  human  forces  is 
necessary.  Others  preached  extreme  Individualism 
and  the  removal  of  all  control;  and  still  others  ex¬ 
pounded  a  doctrine  of  moderate  Individualism  in 
the  form  of  Communism.  Thus  intellectual  Ger¬ 
many  formed  a  motley  of  ideas,  Liberalism,  Human- 
itarianism,  Socialism  and  Anarchism,  all  mingled  into 
a  kaleidoscopic  phenomenon  of  conceptions,  where 
different  intellectual  currents  crossed  each  other, 
touched  each  other  and  diverged  from  each  other. 
They  had,  however,  one  thing  in  common,  and  that 
was  the  striving  toward  the  political  liberation  of 
Germany. 

In  this  whirlwind  of  ideas  and  tendencies,  Hess 
lived  and  acted.  He  reacted  to  all  of  them,  and  these 
various  ideas  are  mirrored  in  his  book  Rome  and  Je¬ 
rusalem.  A  general  survey  was  necessary  in  order 
to  understand  his  main  thoughts. 

The  unrest  and  the  struggle  going  on  in  the  gen¬ 
eral  German  world  was  strongly  reflected  in  the  Jew¬ 
ish  world,  and  there  accentuated  by  circumstances. 
It  worked  havoc  in  the  ranks  of  Jewry,  and  brought 


16  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


about  a  disintegration  of  its  vital  forces.  The  move¬ 
ment  of  enlightenment,  started  by  Mendelssohn  and 
his  group  of  intellectuals  in  the  last  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  which  had  for  its  aim  the  har¬ 
monization  of  Judaism  with  the  modern  rationalistic 
spirit,  finally  culminated,  in  the  second  and  third 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  a  tremendous 
impetus  for  assimilation. 

The  brief  Napoleonic  reign  in  Germany  freed  the 
Jews  from  the  shackles  of  the  mediaeval  ages;  it  re¬ 
moved  them  from  the  walls  of  the  Ghettos  and  placed 
them,  for  a  time,  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  rest 
of  the  inhabitants.  During  this  brief  period  the  en¬ 
tire  Jewish  economic  and  educational  position  was 
changed.  The  petty  traders  and  laborers  among 
them  diminished,  and  their  place  was  taken  by  mer¬ 
chants  and  professional  men,  many  of  whom  were 
admitted  to  high  positions  in  social  life  and  partici¬ 
pated  in  German  culture.  After  the  War  of  Libera¬ 
tion,  which  brought  but  little  relief  to  the  Jews,  their 
legal  restrictions  having  been  mostly  restored,  the 
position  of  these  half-emancipated  Jews  became  pre¬ 
carious.  They  refused  to  be  forced  back  in  the  legal 
and  social  Ghetto  from  which  they  had  just  emerged, 
and,  as  a  result,  many  sought  refuge  from  their  ab¬ 
normal  position  in  conversion. 

There  were,  however,  those  who  did  not  despair 
entirely  and  hoped  to  continue,  by  means  of  organ¬ 
ized  effort,  the  struggle  for  emancipation  and  at  the 
same  time  to  stem  the  tide  of  conversion.  The  re¬ 
sult  of  these  efforts  was  the  Reform  movement,  which 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  17 


took  shape  in  the  thirties  and  which  reached  its  cli¬ 
max  in  the  following  decades.  To  accomplish  the 
latter  aim,  namely,  to  bring  Judaism  in  accord  with 
the  progressive  spirit  of  the  age,  these  people  thought 
that  all  that  was  necessary  was  to  spiritualize  its 
content,  and  to  abolish  as  many  ceremonies  and  laws 
as  possible.  As  for  obtaining  emancipation,  it  was 
necessary,  in  their  opinion,  to  abolish  Jewish  Nation¬ 
alism  and  declare  the  Jews  to  be  merely  a  religious 
sect,  and  thus  refute,  once  for  all,  the  accusations  of 
the  Germans  of  all  stamps,  whether  reactionary  or 
liberal,  that  the  Jews  are  an  alien  element. 

Emancipation  was  obtained,  though  not  by  means 
of  Reform.  It  was  achieved  through  the  political 
and  social  circumstances  of  the  revolutionary  year 
1848.  But  assimilation  was  not  stemmed.  The  ex¬ 
treme  spiritualization  of  Judaism  of  the  radical  re¬ 
formers  and  the  elimination  of  the  National  element, 
brought  the  new  type  of  Judaism  within  dangerous 
approach  to  reformed  Christianity,  the  line  of  de¬ 
marcation  between  them  becoming  almost  impercep¬ 
tible.  Many  did  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  cross  this 
line  and  enjoy  the  social  advantages  which  the  cross¬ 
ing  afforded. 

But  in  the  innermost  recesses  of  the  Jewish  soul 
there  smoldered  yet  a  spark,  that  was  finally  kin¬ 
dled  into  a  flame,  which  helped  to  sustain  Judaism 
in  these  dangerous  times  and  to  supply  it  with  a  con¬ 
tent.  This  was  the  creation  of  Jewish  science.  Jew¬ 
ish  science,  which  taught  at  least  a  part  of  the  Jews 
in  Germany  to  respect  and  revere  their  glorious  past, 


18  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


aroused  in  their  hearts  the  feeling  of  self-conscious¬ 
ness  and  pride  in  their  religion  and  nation,  and  thus 
helped  to  partly  stem  the  tide  of  total  assimilation. 
It  is  true,  that  in  the  beginning,  Jewish  science  was 
utilized  by  some  of  its  greatest  builders  to  justify 
the  inauguration  of  reform  in  Judaism,  but  it  soon 
assumed  a  more  conservative  tendency.  Such  men 
as  Rappoport,  Krochmal,  Graetz,  Frankel  and  Luz- 
zato  turned  it  into  more  wholesome  channels,  which 
finally  conveyed  strength  and  support  to  the  totter¬ 
ing  Judaism  of  Germany  and,  with  the  help  of  mod¬ 
ernized  orthodoxy,  checked,  in  the  sixth  decade  of 
the  century,  even  the  spread  of  Reform. 

Hess  responded  to  all  these  movements  within 
Jewry,  and  in  his  book  an  echo  of  all  tendencies  and 
strivings  is  heard.  In  his  Rome  and  Jerusalem  will 
be  found  a  characteristic  estimate  of  all  these  strug¬ 
gling  forces  within  Judaism  at  the  time.  He,  how¬ 
ever,  in  his  enthusiastic  manner,  overestimates  the 
value  of  Jewish  science  for  the  National  revival.  It 
did  not  fulfil  his  expectations.  Jewish  science,  with 
the  exception  of  the  writings  of  Krochmal  and  Luz- 
zato,  has  not  contributed  much  to  National  regen¬ 
eration.  It  remains  for  it  to  atone  in  the  future  for 
the  unpardonable  sin  it  committed  in  the  past. 

The  Life  of  Hess 

Moses  Hess  was  born  in  Bonn,  Germany,  on  the 
twenty-first  of  January,  1812.  His  father  was  a 
wealthy  merchant  and  thoroughly  orthodox  in  his 
opinions.  On  his  mother’s  side,  Hess  descended  from 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  19 


a  line  of  Rabbis  and  Jewish  scholars.  His  early  edu¬ 
cation  was  imbued  with  the  Jewish  spirit  and  the  re¬ 
ligious  zeal  of  his  parents.  At  the  age  of  nine,  Hess 
was  given  into  the  custody  of  his  grandfather,  his 
parents  having  left  Bonn  for  Cologne.  The  grand¬ 
father  was  a  pious  Jew  of  the  old  type,  a  Rabbi  by 
degree,  but  not  by  profession,  and  by  his  conduct  he 
left  a  very  deep  impression  upon  the  young  Hess  and 
instilled  in  him  the  deep  love  for  the  Jewish  people, 
which  finally  found  its  expression  in  Rome  and  Je¬ 
rusalem,  Hess  speaks  of  his  grandfather  in  the  most 
glowing  terms. 

In  1830,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  Hess  entered  the 
Bonn  University.  It  seems,  however,  that  he  never 
received  an  academic  degree,  having  left  the  Univer¬ 
sity  in  the  midst  of  his  course  of  study.  The  Uni¬ 
versities  were  at  that  time  the  center  of  the  Liberal 
and  Radical  movements  and  tendencies.  Young  Hess 
was  powerfully  attracted  by  these  tendencies,  and 
devoted  himself  with  the  entire  force  of  his  fiery  soul 
to  the  propagation  of  the  Socialist  movement. 

This  radical  activity  on  the  part  of  the  young 
Hess  led  finally  to  a  break  between  him  and  his  con¬ 
servative  father,  and,  as  a  result,  Hess  left  Germany 
for  England.  After  a  short  stay,  he  went  to  Paris, 
whence,  having  spent  his  money,  he  returned  to  Ger¬ 
many,  making  his  journey  on  foot,  and  was  engaged 
for  a  time  as  a  teacher  in  the  village  near  Metz. 

A  reconciliation  was  effected  between  father  and 
son,  and  for  a  short  time  Hess  was  employed  in  his 
father’s  business.  But  commercial  pursuits  did  not 


20  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


harmonize  with  the  spirit  of  the  young  enthusiast, 
nor  were  the  relations  between  him  and  his  father 
very  cordial ;  and,  consequently,  the  war  between  the 
two  broke  out  anew.  When  Hess,  in  1840,  married 
Sybille  Pritsch,  a  Christian  girl  of  questionable  repu¬ 
tation,  the  break  between  him  and  his  father  was 
complete  and  the  two  never  met  again. 

Hess,  after  giving  up  his  business  career,  devoted 
his  entire  energy  to  philosophical  studies  and  social¬ 
istic  activity.  In  1837  he  published  his  first  work, 
entitled,  The  Sacred  History  of  Humanity ,  by  a 
Young  Spinozist.  In  this  work,  Hess  develops  his 
Philosophy  of  History,  which  is,  in  its  essence,  a 
combined  product  of  Spinozism  and  Hegelianism. 
This  work  was  followed,  in  1841,  by  a  second  vol¬ 
ume,  The  European  Triarchy ,  where  he  advocates 
an  alliance  between  England,  France  and  Germany, 
the  three  most  civilized  nations  of  Europe;  the  same 
idea  is  repeated  by  him  in  his  Rome  and  Jerusalem. 

Hess  was  actively  engaged,  at  the  time,  in  the 
propaganda  of  Socialism  and  became  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  radical  movement.  He  was  a  contribu¬ 
tor  to  all  the  Socialistic  publications,  especially  the 
Rhenische  Zeitung ,  of  whose  editorial  staff  he  seems 
to  have  been  a  member.  But  such  liberal  publica¬ 
tions  were  objectionable  to  the  reactionary  authori¬ 
ties  and  were  soon  forbidden  by  order  of  the  police. 
The  Socialists,  together  with  the  Radicals,  were  then 
forced  to  publish  their  works  and  periodicals  in 
Switzerland.  Such  a  periodical  publication  was  Ein 
und  Zwanzig  Bogen  aus  der  Schmeitz — all  works 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  21 


above  twenty  sheets  were  free  from  censorship — 
where  a  long  article  by  Hess,  under  the  name  The 
Philosophy  of  Action ,  was  published.  This  article 
raised  the  philosophical  standard  of  Hess  in  the  eyes 
of  his  fellow-workers.  Hess  endeavors,  in  this  arti¬ 
cle,  to  elaborate  a  system  of  philosophical  Anarch¬ 
ism,  declaring  that  the  individual  and  the  concrete 
is  the  only  reality  of  the  Idea,  and  vigorously  de¬ 
nouncing  all  abstract  generalities.  The  fundamental 
idea  of  the  essay  is,  that  the  individual  must  have 
absolute  freedom  of  action.  This  outburst  of  Indi¬ 
vidualism  on  the  part  of  Hess,  not  only  won  him  the 
displeasure  of  the  socialist  leaders,  such  as  Marx  and 
Engels,  but  did  not  harmonize  with  his  own  social 
nature  and  tendencies ;  he  therefore  modified  his  con¬ 
ception  of  egoism  and  socialized  it.  The  highest  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  Ego,  according  to  him,  is  when  a 
man  recognizes  social  life  as  his  own.  A  direct  re¬ 
sult  of  his  new  teaching  was  his  vigorous  participa¬ 
tion  in  the  Communistic  movement.  In  1845,  Hess 
engaged  in  propagating  the  Communistic  idea  and 
founding  societies  devoted  to  its  realization,  an  oc¬ 
cupation  which  led  Arnold  Ruge  to  describe  him  as 
“The  Communist  Rabbi  Moses.” 

His  communistic  activity,  however,  was  soon  cur¬ 
tailed.  Hess,  coming  more  and  more  under  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  Marx,  adopted  his  views  and  began  to 
preach  the  gospel  of  Economic  Socialism.  In  his 
articles  published  in  the  subsequent  year  1846  in 
Marx’s  J ahrbuecher,  he  advocated  class  struggle 
and  declares  himself  a  champion  of  the  proletariat. 


22  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


Marx,  however,  could  not  forgive  Hess  for  his  en¬ 
thusiasm  and  warmth,  and  often  denounced  him. 
Even  in  the  Communist  Manifesto ,  he  directed  some 
bitter  shafts  at  him,  calling  him  a  dreamer  and 
phantasist. 

In  1847,  Hess  went  to  Brussels,  and  for  a  time 
contributed  to  the  Deutsche  Brussiler  Zeitung. 
From  Brussels  he  went  to  Paris.  Meanwhile,  how¬ 
ever,  the  Revolution  of  1848  broke  out  and  Hess 
hastened  to  return  to  Germany,  taking  an  active 
part  in  the  armed  resistance  of  the  people.  The  fol¬ 
lowing  year,  when  reaction  set  in,  Hess,  among 
others,  was  condemned  to  death.  For  a  time  he  wan¬ 
dered  about  aimlessly,  attempting  to  settle  in  Geneva 
and  Antwerp ;  but  the  Prussian  government,  demand¬ 
ing  his  extradition,  made  his  stay  unsafe,  and  he 
finally  went,  in  1853,  to  Paris,  where  he  lived  for  the 
greater  part  of  his  remaining  days. 

The  sixth  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  a 
period  of  reaction  and  conservatism  in  Germany. 
The  revolutionary  movement  had  spent  its  force  in 
the  attempted  Revolution  of  1848,  and  autocracy, 
regaining  its  strength,  ruled  with  a  mailed  fist, 
though  gloved  in  constitutional  form.  Many  of  the 
former  revolutionary  and  liberal  leaders,  now  in  ex¬ 
ile,  despaired  of  ever  carrying  out  their  plan  of  a 
social  change  by  means  of  revolution,  and  devoted 
themselves  to  other  pursuits.  Among  them  was 
Hess,  who,  during  the  eight  years  of  his  stay  in 
Paris,  from  1852  to  1860,  occupied  himself  with  the 
study  of  the  physical  and  biological  sciences,  espe- 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  23 


cially  anatomy  and  anthropology.  Arnold  Ruge, 
the  German  philosopher  and  liberal,  who  was  living 
in  Paris  at  the  time,  scoffed  at  Hess’s  devotion  to 
science  and  his  forsaking  of  the  ideal,  and  accused 
him  of  becoming  an  adherent  of  imperialism,  but 
Hess  was  not  swayed  by  these  strictures. 

These  studies  mark  the  turning  point  in  Hess’s 
mental  attitude.  Delving  in  Ethnology,  Hess  was 
convinced  that  the  doctrine  of  Cosmopolitanism, 
which  preaches  the  abolition  of  national  landmarks 
and  the  fusing  of  humanity  into  one  motley  mass, 
has  no  scientific  basis.  He  learned  that  Humanity 
consists  of  a  group  of  nations,  each  distinct  in  physi¬ 
cal  type  and  mental  peculiarities,  and  that  these  dis¬ 
tinctions  are  not  artificial,  but  primal  and  inherent. 
Hess  then  began  to  reflect  about  the  fate  and  future 
of  his  own  nation,  which  he  had  never  entirely  for¬ 
gotten,  but,  as  he  himself  says,  his  energies  were 
temporarily  diverted  to  what  he  at  that  time  con¬ 
sidered  a  greater  and  more  important  subject  of  at¬ 
tention — the  European  Proletariat.  The  result  of 
these  reflections  was  his  Rome  and  Jerusalem.  Hess 
carried  into  his  new  occupation,  the  preaching  of 
Jewish  Nationalism,  the  same  fire  and  enthusiasm 
which  animated  his  socialistic  writings  and  activities 
and,  naturally,  the  appearance  of  his  book  made  a 
strong  impression  upon  his  contemporaries. 

A  champion  of  the  Jewish  National  movement, 
Hess  did  not  cease  to  be  an  ardent  party  socialist, 
and  in  1863  went  back  to  Germany  for  a  short  time 
and  participated  in  propaganda  work,  under  the  di- 


24  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


rection  of  Lasalle.  But  it  seems  that  his  old  zeal 
was  gone,  for  he  soon  returned  to  Paris  and  devoted 
himself  once  more  to  his  scientific  studies,  and  also 
to  Jewish  studies.  During  the  succeeding  years  he 
contributed  frequently  to  socialistic  periodicals,  and 
also  to  Jewish  publications,  among  which  were  the 
Archives  Israelites  and  Graetz’s  Monatsschrift  fuer 
das  Wissenschaft  des  Judenthums. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War, 
Hess,  as  a  Prussian  subject,  was  exiled  from  Paris. 
And  yet,  this  act  did  not  embitter  him  against 
France,  but,  on  the  contrary,  he  grieved  deeply  at 
France’s  defeat.  To  give  vent  to  his  feeling,  he  pub¬ 
lished  a  book  which  he  called  The  Defeated  Nation , 
in  which  he  advocated  an  alliance  of  all  nations 
against  Prussianized  Germany.  After  peace  was  es¬ 
tablished,  he  returned  to  Paris  and  to  his  scientific 
studies.  Through  his  constant  wandering  and  travel 
his  health  had  become  undermined  and,  after  a  few 
years  of  quiet  work,  he  died  in  1875,  at  the  age  of 
sixty-three.  At  his  own  request,  he  was  buried  in 
the  family  plot  at  Dietz  on  the  Rhine.  His  wife, 
who  survived  him,  published  the  first  volume  of  his 
Dynamic  Matter ,  in  1877. 

The  Philosophy  of  Hess 

Hess  is  not  a  systematic  thinker.  He  never  en¬ 
deavored  to  develop  his  view  of  the  world  and  life  on 
the  basis  of  fixed  principles  in  logical  sequence,  but 
presented  them  in  rather  confused  form.  Yet  the 
principles  are  there  and  have  a  direct  relation  to  his 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  25 

views  on  Nature,  Life,  History  and  Judaism.  Hess, 
as  we  have  seen,  wrote  many  works,  but  the  latest  of 
his  productions,  Rome  and  Jerusalem ,  in  spite  of  its 
modest  size,  constitutes  his  Magnum  Opus .  In  it 
we  find  a  summary  of  his  views  on  all  grave  questions 
in  their  most  perfected  form.  The  ideas  expressed 
in  it  are  valuable,  not  only  as  a  foundation  of  the 
philosophy  of  Jewish  Nationalism,  but  also  as  a  con¬ 
tribution  to  human  thought  in  general.  With  Hess, 
Judaism  is  not  an  isolated  phenomenon  of  civiliza¬ 
tion,  the  expression  of  the  spirit  of  a  small  people, 
but  the  most  important  constituent  of  the  spiritual 
expression  of  Humanity.  Hess  raised  Judaism  to 
the  dignity  of  a  world  philosophy,  which  has  for  its 
aim  the  elevation  and  perfection  not  only  of  the  Jew¬ 
ish  people,  but  of  the  entire  human  genus.  His  view 
of  Judaism,  however,  is  only  a  part  of  a  general  phi¬ 
losophical  conception  of  Nature  and  life,  a  system¬ 
atic  exposition  of  the  principles  of  which  will  help  to 
elucidate  it  and  enhance  its  value. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  Hess’s  thought  is 
what  he  terms  “the  genetic  view.”  It  is  based  on  the 
teaching  of  Spinoza,  of  which  he  was  a  devoted  fol¬ 
lower.  Hess,  though  influenced  greatly  by  Hegel 
and  the  post-Hegelian  philosophy,  especially  by  that 
of  Feuerbach,  always  remained  a  Spinozist,  yet  his 
teaching  extends  far  beyond  that  of  Spinoza,  and  is 
more  adaptable  to  life,  and  more  fruitful  as  a  social 
factor.  According  to  his  view,  the  world,  in  spite  of 
its  multiplicity  and  variety  of  phases,  is  a  unity. 
There  is  no  place  in  it  for  a  dualism  of  matter  and 


26  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


spirit,  or  other  divisions ;  it  is  all  one, — an  undivided 
whole;  the  multiplicity  in  the  universe  is  only  ap¬ 
parent,  the  various  unfoldings  of  the  basic  unity. 
Behind  this  unity  there  is  the  all-embracing  force 
which  unifies  the  phenomena  of  the  universe — the 
Creator  or  God.  God  is  not  outside  of  the  world 
but  within  it,  its  essence  and  substance.  He,  the 
all-unifying  force,  the  Creator,  expresses  himself  in 
all  multiple  phenomena  of  Nature  and  life,  and  thus 
creates  them,  making  the  entire  world  a  created 


one. 


Hess’s  emphasis  of  creation  gives  to  his  philoso¬ 
phy  an  entirely  new  aspect,  far  exceeding  in  impor¬ 
tance  that  of  Spinoza.  Spinoza,  though  employing 
the  word  creation,  never  conceived  God  as  a  real 
Creator,  but  endorses  the  mechanical  view  of  the 
world,  which  sees  in  the  universe  a  huge  machine, 
working  according  to  fixed  laws,  without  aim  and 
purpose.  Hess,  on  the  contrary,  protests  bitterly 
against  this  mechanical  conception,  and  sees  in  the 
world  a  constant  tendency  toward  creation,  namely, 
the  forming  of  things  anew.  The  life  of  the  world 
is  not  a  mere  blind  operation  of  forces,  but  a  devel¬ 
opment  with  a  purpose  and  aim  which  will  finally  be 
realized.  This  aim  is  the  harmony  of  all  antagonistic 
elements,  the  reconciliation  of  all  opposing  forces, 
and  the  final  peaceful  cooperation  of  all  for  perfec¬ 
tion  and  development.  In  this  conception  of  recon¬ 
ciliation  Hess  shows  the  influence  of  Hegel’s  philos¬ 
ophy  or  Synthesis ,  which  sees  in  the  world  of  thought 
and  life  a  constant  process  of  opposition  and  recon- 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  27 

ciliation ;  but  he  employed  it  to  better  advantage 
than  the  master. 

The  creative  force  of  the  universe  is  a  vital  force, 
and  the  entire  universe  a  live  being  which  is  divided 
into  three  life  spheres :  the  cosmic,  organic  and  social 
or  the  human.  There  are  no  hard  and  fast  lines  sep¬ 
arating  them,  but  they  are  all  parts  of  a  great  whole, 
one  creative  force  called  them  into  being.  The  world 
is  all  movement;  there  is  nothing  stable  in  it;  all 
things  were  formed  anew.  Hess  does  not  believe  in 
the  eternity  of  matter,  nor  in  the  constancy  of  atoms. 
The  atoms  were  created  as  all  other  things  in  this 
world  and  are  subject  to  growth  and  decay.  Atoms 
are  only  centers  of  gravity  from  which  creation  pro¬ 
ceeds,  and  corresponding  to  them,  in  other  spheres, 
are  the  germs  in  the  organic,  and  revelations  of  cre¬ 
ative  ideas  in  the  social. 

Hess  believes  that  this  genetic  conception  is  the 
real  Jewish  conception  and  points  to  the  Biblical 
theory  of  creation.  He  was  certainly  right  in  his 
assertions.  To  look  upon  the  world  as  a  process  of 
becoming  and  upon  the  creative  force  as  vital,  is  a 
primary  quality  of  Jewish  thought  and  is  best  illus¬ 
trated  in  Bergson.  Comparing  the  view  of  Hess  with 
that  of  the  brilliant  French- Jewish  philosopher,  we 
are  struck  with  the  similarity.  Bergson,  like  Hess, 
struggles  against  the  mechanical  view  of  the  world, 
and  teaches  a  creative  evolution  constantly  forming 
new  productions,  which  are  incalculable  beforehand. 
Like  Hess,  he  teaches  the  unity  of  the  vital  force 
which,  though  dividing  itself  into  different  forms,  re- 


28  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


mains  essentially  one.  There  are  undoubtedly  dif¬ 
ferences  between  the  two,  but  the  fundamentals  are 
the  same  with  both  of  them;  and,  from  a  practical 
point  of  view,  Hess’s  conception  is  far  deeper  and 
more  fertile.  Hess  applies  his  philosophic  thought 
to  the  social  world,  while  Bergson  remains  in  the 
middle  of  the  road. 

On  the  basis  of  the  principles  laid  down  by  him  in 
his  view  of  the  world,  Hess  constructed  his  philoso¬ 
phy  of  history.  History,  which  embraces  the  social 
sphere  of  life  is,  according  to  him,  not  subordinate 
to  Nature  but  on  a  par  with  it;  it  is  dominated  by 
the  same  laws  and  permeated  with  the  same  unified 
creative  force.  God  reveals  himself  in  history  no  less 
than  in  Nature ;  in  this,  he  reminds  us  of  the  first 
Jewish  national  philosopher,  Halevi,1  and  there  is  a 
divine  plan  in  human  affairs  which  is  gradually  un¬ 
folding  itself  in  time. 

Hess,  like  all  thinkers  of  his  time,  was  influenced 
in  his  conception  of  history  by  Hegel,  whose  princi¬ 
ples  he  applied.  History,  like  Nature,  is  a  constant 
development,  and  is,  of  course,  dominated  by  law,  yet 
human  freedom  is  preserved  by  the  consciousness  of 
our  action.  The  development  of  history  goes  on  in 
dialectic  form,  namely,  forces  opposing  each  other 
in  earlier  historical  epochs  are  ultimately  reconciled 
by  a  new  synthetic  epoch.  Hess,  viewing  history  as 
a  part  of  the  universal  scheme,  sees  in  its  develop¬ 
ment  an  analogy  to  the  development  of  Nature.  In 

i  See  the  writer’s  article  on  Halevi  in  The  American  Hebrew, 
November  10,  1916. 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  29 

the  former,  as  in  the  latter,  there  are  three  periods: 
rise,  growth,  and  maturity,  and  there  is  also  a  cor¬ 
responding  similarity  between  the  periods  of  these 
two  spheres,  which  he  elaborates  fancifully  in  the 
tenth  letter.  The  difference  lies  in  this :  that  while 
Nature  has  already  entered  upon  the  third  phase  of 
its  development,  history  is  still  striving  toward  it. 
Hess  employs,  as  the  means  of  conveying  his  ideas, 
the  Biblical  conception  of  Sabbath,  which  signifies 
“rest”  as  well  as  “completion.”  Nature  has  already 
attained  its  Sabbath,  but  History  is  yet  to  attain  it. 
The  Sabbath  of  history,  the  period  of  maturity  of 
human  development,  is  the  Messianic  era  of  the 
Prophets.  It  is  a  time  when  all  opposing  and  strug¬ 
gling  forces  of  the  social  sphere  will  be  harmonized 
and  men  will  become  morally  free.  But  in  order  to 
comprehend  the  full  significance  of  Hess’s  historical 
conception  and  his  grand  vision  of  the  future,  we 
must  understand  his  view  of  Society  and  its  strivings. 

In  his  youth,  when,  in  response  to  the  impulses  of 
his  warm  heart,  he  threw  himself  in  the  Socialist 
movement  in  order  to  attempt  to  alleviate  human 
misery,  Hess  had  no  definite  conception  of  human 
Society.  He  was  swayed  too  often  by  different  mo¬ 
tives.  Social  life  to  him  was  only  a  constant  antag¬ 
onism  between  the  collective  body  of  society  as  a 
whole  and  its  individual  constituent  members.  Hu¬ 
man  history,  he  says  somewhere  in  his  writings,  is 
a  struggle  actuated  by  two  motives,  egoism  and  love. 
In  other  words,  there  are  two  forces  in  Society,  the 
disintegrating  one,  egoism,  and  the  cementing  force 


30  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


which  binds  one  human  being  to  the  other,  love. 
Hess  always  retained  his  belief  in  love  as  a  moral  fac¬ 
tor  and  opens  his  book  Rome  and  Jerusalem  with  a 
eulogy  of  it.  As  an  escape  from  this  eternal  struggle, 
he  proposed  Communism,  a  state  of  Society  which 
is  bound  to  curb  egoism  and  foster  love.  For  a  time, 
he  swayed  to  Individualism.  Under  the  influence  of 
Feuerbach  and  Bauer,  he  wrote  his  Philosophy  of 
Action ,  which  advocated  the  freedom  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual.  But,  even  then,  he  was  not  an  egoist.  Later, 
again,  under  the  influence  of  Marx,  he  became  more 
a  class-struggle  socialist.  But  in  all  these  social 
changes  of  his,  Hess  conceived  Society  only  as  an 
aggregate  of  individuals. 

It  was  only  later,  as  a  result  of  his  anthropologi¬ 
cal  studies,  that  Hess  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
Society  is  not  a  mere  abstract  idea  but  is  composed 
of  definite  subdivisions  known  as  races,  each  of  which 
has  definite  hereditary  mental  and  physical  traits 
which  are  unchangeable.  He  then  formed  his  or¬ 
ganic  conception  of  Society,  entirely  independently 
of  Spencer,  which  is  the  corner-stone  of  his  social 
and  Jewish  philosophy.  Society,  according  to  this 
conception,  is  an  organic  body  composed  of  organs, 
the  races.  Each  of  these  organs  or  races  has  a  dif¬ 
ferent  function  to  perform  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whole.  It  is  in  the  performance  of  this  function  that 
the  purpose  of  existence  of  the  organ  is  realized; 
and  there  exists  in  every  organ  a  natural  tendency 
to  perform  the  function. 

Hess  developed  an  elaborate  historical  scheme,  ac- 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  31 


cording  to  which  every  historical  race  had  or  has  a 
certain  mission  or  function  to  perform.  The  impor¬ 
tant  places  in  this  scheme  are  reserved  by  him  for  the 
two  antithetical  nations,  the  Greeks  and  the  Jews. 
To  the  Greeks,  the  world  presented  multiplicity  and 
variety;  to  the  Jews,  unity;  the  former  conceived 
Nature  and  life  as  being ,  namely,  as  an  accomplished 
thing;  the  latter,  as  becoming ,  as  a  thing  constantly 
being  created.  The  Greeks,  like  Nature,  which  they 
represented,  had  reached  their  aim  in  life  and  had, 
therefore,  disappeared  from  the  world.  The  Jews, 
on  the  other  hand,  representing  History,  the  con¬ 
stantly  striving  force,  are  still  in  existence,  endeav¬ 
oring  to  carry  out  their  aim,  to  bring  about  in  this 
sphere  of  social  life  the  historical  Sabbath,  namely, 
the  harmony  of  all  social  forces. 

Judaism  is  a  historical  religion,  a  religion  which 
has  for  its  field  of  operation  the  social  sphere,  and 
which  has  discovered  God  in  history,  namely,  the  cre¬ 
ative  and  reconciling  principle  in  the  life  of  human¬ 
ity.  The  most  characteristic  point  of  Judaism,  says 
Hess,  in  one  of  his  later  articles,2  is  that  it  placed  be¬ 
fore  human  history  its  highest  goal,  the  realization 
of  universal  law  in  Society.  Judaism,  he  says  in  an¬ 
other  place,  is  a  humanitarian  religion.  According 
to  its  teachings,  the  life  of  the  human  genus  is  an 
organic  process ;  it  began  with  the  family  of  the  in¬ 
dividual  and  will  finally  end  with  a  family  of  nations. 
This,  then,  is  the  Jewish  mission  or  function  in 

2  Die  Einheit  des  Judenthums  innerhalb  der  heutigen  Re- 
ligiosen  Anarchie,  in  the  Monatsschrift,  1869. 


32  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 


Society,  to  realize  the  teachings  of  its  great  religion 
in  practical  life.  The  Jewish  nation  belongs  to  the 
creative  organs  of  humanity.  The  Jews  have  taught 
humanity  true  religion,  a  religion  which  is  neither 
materialistic  nor  spiritualistic,  which  has  for  its  aim, 
unlike  Christianity,  not  the  salvation  of  the  individ¬ 
ual  in  the  other  world,  but  the  perfection  of  social 
life  in  this  world.  And  it  is  this  function  which  they 
have  to  discharge  to  create  for  humanity  new  social 
values. 

This  function  of  Israel  which,  as  a  member  of  a 
great  organism  of  Society,  he  is  to  perform,  cannot 
be  discharged  anywhere  else  but  in  Palestine,  where 
he  will  again  be  a  nation  possessing  his  own  soil,  a 
fundamental  condition  for  living  a  regular  normal 
social  life.  The  regeneration  of  Judaism  and  Jewry 
is  impossible  in  exile  where  it  lacks  the  soil,  the  basis 
of  a  political  life,  and  where  there  exists  constant 
fear  of  disintegration.  In  exile,  the  Jews  are  un¬ 
fruitful  in  all  spheres,  spiritually  and  economically. 
Jewish  economic  life,  no  matter  how  prosperous  it 
may  be  in  some  countries,  is  abnormal;  it  lacks  a 
basis,  the  soil;  the  Jews,  therefore,  cannot  be  cre¬ 
ators  and  are  only  middlemen.  It  is  only  in  their 
own  land,  where  they  will  be  able  to  produce  new  eco¬ 
nomic  and  social  values,  that  they  will  continue  to 
develop  their  greatest  creation — Religion,  which  as 
a  moral  force  will  exert  great  influence  upon  human¬ 
ity  and  thus  bring  about  the  realization  of  social  har¬ 
mony.  In  his  attempt  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a 
positive  view  of  Jewish  life,  Hess  devoted  considera- 


TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION  33 


ble  space  to  negative  criticism  of  existing  concep¬ 
tions  of  Jewish  life.  His  bitterest  attacks  are  di¬ 
rected  against  the  reformers  and  assimilators  who 
deny  Jewish  nationality  and  substitute  in  its  place 
an  abstract  indefinite  teaching  which  they  term, 
“Mission.”  Hess  believes  in  a  Jewish  mission,  but 
his  mission  is  a  natural  function  based  on  history 
and  social  life,  while  theirs  is  only  a  product  of 
imagination  and  narrow  vision.  He  attacks  their 
ignorance  of  Jewish  history  and  the  misconception 
of  the  nature  of  Judaism  as  well  as  of  Society  in 
general,  and  ridicules  their  self-assumed  role  as  the 
teachers  of  the  nations.  Their  Judaism  is  only  an 
empty  shell,  after  the  most  important  principles  have 
been  abandoned  by  them.  The  Orthodox  Jews  have, 
in  his  opinion,  a  much  higher  and  truer  conception 
of  Judaism.  They  have  retained  in  their  ceremonies 
and  prayers  the  kernel  of  Nationalism  and  the  desire 
for  Jewish  restoration.  Yet  even  they  do  not  satisfy 
him  entirely.  Their  inactivity  and  fossilized  state 
irritate  him.  But  he  is  optimistic.  He  believes  that 
the  spirit  of  regeneration  will  revive  them  and  that 
they  will  finally  furnish  the  material  for  a  great 
National  Movement.  Hess  also  laid  great  hopes  on 
Jewish  science  and  expected  it  to  become  a  great 
factor  in  the  Jewish  revival. 

Hess  developed  a  practical  plan  for  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  his  dream  of  Jewish  restoration.  He  advo¬ 
cated  the  colonization  of  Palestine  and  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  a  Jewish  Colonization  Association.  He 
dreamed  that  Jews,  having  been  settled  on  the  road 


34  TRANSLATOR’S  INTRODUCTION 

to  India  and  China,  will  become  the  mediators  be¬ 
tween  Asia  and  Europe.  For  political  support,  he 
looked  to  his  beloved  France,  the  embodiment  of  free¬ 
dom  and  the  champion  of  oppressed  nations.  But  he 
also  dreamed  of  a  Jewish  Congress,  demanding  the 
support  of  the  Powers  for  the  purchase  of  Pales* 
tine,  a  dream  quite  prophetic  in  view  of  recent  de¬ 
velopments.  He  also  foresaw  a  political  situation 
resembling  in  its  features  the  present  state  of  affairs 
created  by  the  war ;  he  called  it  the  last  struggle  be¬ 
tween  reaction  and  freedom.  In  some  of  his  articles 
there  are  strikingly  modern  features. 

Some  of  the  dreams  of  this  great  visionary  have 
partly  come  true.  Let  us  gather  confidence  from  the 
words  of  this  modern  seer,  and  hope  that  the  glori¬ 
ous  vision  he  foresaw  for  Israel  will  be  realized  in 
the  coming  period  of  history. 


M.  W. 


AUTHOR  S  PREFACE 


From  the  time  that  Innocent  III 1  evolved  the  dia¬ 
bolical  plan  to  destroy  the  moral  stamina  of  the 
Jews,  the  bearers  of  Spanish  culture  to  the  world  of 
Christendom,  by  forcing  them  to  wear  a  badge  of 
shame  on  their  garments,  until  the  audacious  kid¬ 
napping  of  a  Jewish  child  from  the  house  of  his 
parents,  which  occurred  undei*  the  government  of 
Cardinal  Antonelli,  Papal  Rome  symbolizes  to  the 
Jews  an  inexhaustible  well  of  poison.  It  is  only  with 
the  drying-up  of  this  source  that  Christian  German 
Anti-Semitism  will  die  from  lack  of  nourishment. 

With  the  disappearance  of  the  hostility  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  to  culture,  there  ceases  also  its  animosity  to 
Judaism;  with  the  liberation  of  the  Eternal  City  on 
the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  begins  the  liberation  of  the 
Eternal  City  on  the  slopes  of  Moriah;  the  renaissance 
of  Italy  heralds  the  rise  of  Judah.2  The  orphaned 

1  Innocent  III,  Pope  from  1198  to  1216,  was  distinguished 
for  his  cruel  hatred  toward  the  Jews.  At  his  instigation,  the 
fourth  Lateran  Council  adopted  a  Resolution  urging  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Princes  to  force  the  Jews  to  wear  a  distinctive  badge 
on  their  garments. — Translator. 

2  At  the  time  when  Hess  wrote  these  lines,  Italy,  under  the 
leadership  of  Garibaldi,  was  struggling  to  wrest  Rome  from 
the  Papal  government  and  annex  it  to  the  new  unified  King¬ 
dom.  The  remarks  in  regard  to  Poland  and  Hungary  are  also 
explained  by  the  events  of  the  time. — Translator. 

35 


36 


AUTHOR’S  PREFACE 


children  of  Jerusalem  will  also  participate  in  the 
great  regeneration  of  nations,  in  their  awakening 
from  the  lethargy  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with  its  ter¬ 
rible  nightmares. 

Springtime  in  the  life  of  nations  began  with  the 
French  Revolution.  The  year  1789  marks  the  Spring 
equinox  in  the  life  of  historical  peoples.  Resurrec¬ 
tion  of  nations  becomes  a  natural  phenomenon  at  a 
time  when  Greece  and  Rome  are  being  regenerated. 
Poland  breathes  the  air  of  liberty  anew  and  Hungary 
is  preparing  itself  for  the  final  struggle  of  liberation. 
Simultaneously,  there  is  a  movement  of  unrest  among 
the  other  subjected  nations,  which  will  ultimately  cul¬ 
minate  in  the  rise  of  all  the  peoples  oppressed  both 
by  Asiatic  barbarism  and  European  civilization 
against  their  masters,  and,  in  the  name  of  a  higher 
right,  they  will  challenge  the  right  of  the  master 
nations  to  rule. 

Among  the  nations  believed  to  be  dead  and  which, 
when  they  become  conscious  of  their  historic  mission, 
will  struggle  for  their  national  rights,  is  also  Israel — 
the  nation  which  for  two  thousand  years  has  defied 
the  storms  of  time,  and  in  spite  of  having  been  tossed 
by  the  currents  of  history  to  every  part  of  the  globe, 
has  always  cast  yearning  glances  toward  Jerusalem 
and  is  still  directing  its  gaze  thither.  Fortified  by 
its  racial  instinct  and  by  its  cultural  and  historical 
mission  to  unite  all  humanity  in  the  name  of  the 
Eternal  Creator,  this  people  has  conserved  its  na¬ 
tionality,  in  the  form  of  its  religion  and  united  both 
inseparably  with  the  memories  of  its  ancestral  land. 


AUTHOR’S  PREFACE 


37 


No  modern  people,  struggling  for  its  own  fatherland, 
can  deny  the  right  of  the  Jewish  people  to  its  former 
land,  without  at  the  same  time  undermining  the  jus¬ 
tice  of  its  own  strivings. 

But  while  the  unprejudiced  stranger  considers  the 
problem  of  Jewish  Nationalism  a  timely  one,  it  ap¬ 
pears  to  cultured  German  Jews  unreasonable.  For 
it  is  in  Germany  that  the  difference  between  the  Jew¬ 
ish  and  German  races  is  emphasized  and  used  both  by 
the  reactionary  as  well  as  by  the  liberal  Anti-Semite 
as  a  cloak  for  their  Judeophobia.  It  is  there  that  the 
existence  of  Jewish  nationality  is  still  employed  as 
an  argument  against  the  granting  of  practical  and 
civil  rights  to  the  Jews.  And  this  in  Germany,  where 
the  Jews,  from  the  time  of  Mendelssohn,  in  spite  of 
their  participation  in  all  cultural  and  moral  move¬ 
ments  and  their  notable  contribution  to  these  fields, 
and  notwithstanding  their  continual  disavowal  of 
Jewish  national  culture  and  their  painstaking  exer¬ 
tions  to  Germanize  themselves,  have  striven  in  vain 
to  obtain  equal  rights.  But  what  brother  did  not 
obtain  from  brother,  what  was  not  granted  by  man 
to  man,  will  be  given  by  a  people  to  a  people,  by  a 
nation  to  a  nation.  No  nation  can  be  indifferent  to 
the  fact  that  in  the  coming  European  struggle  for 
liberty  it  may  have  another  people  as  its  friend  or 
foe.  • 

The  voices  that  are  heard  from  various  parts  of 
the  world,  demanding  the  national  regeneration  of 
Israel,  find  justification,  first  of  all,  in  the  Jewish 
cult,  in  the  national  character  of  Judaism,  and,  even 


38 


AUTHOR’S  PREFACE 


more,  in  the  general  process  of  development  of  human¬ 
ity  and  its  obvious  results,  and  finally,  in  the  present 
situation  of  human  life. 

In  the  series  of  letters  that  follow,  the  author  has 
emphasized  primarily  the  first  mentioned,  namely, 
the  inner  justification.  In  doing  this  he  has  been 
impelled  to  denounce  the  fantastic  illusions  of  the 
rationalists  and  philanthropists  who  deny  the  national 
character  of  the  Jewish  religion,  either  on  principle 
or  for  material  reasons.  But  he  must  protest  as 
vigorously  against  the  dogmatic  fanatics  who,  not 
being  able  to  develop  our  historic  religion  along 
modern  lines,  have  sought  shelter  under  the  wings 
of  ignorance,  so  as  to  avoid  a  struggle  with  the  de¬ 
ductions  of  science  and  criticism.  He  is  thus  pre¬ 
paring  the  way  for  the  coming  peace,  which  is  daily 
breaking  in  upon  the  strife  that  is  now  raging  be¬ 
tween  Reform  and  Orthodoxy. 

Thanks  to  recent  labors  of  Jewish  scholars  and  the 
portrayal  of  Jewish  life  by  talented  novelists  and 
poets,  our  national  historical  faith  has  found  numer¬ 
ous  adherents  even  among  those  to  whom  but  recently 
enlightenment  meant  the  falling  away  from  Judaism. 
The  field  of  Jewish  science  is  common  to  reformers 
and  to  the  orthodox  alike.  The  inner  motives,  which 
in  the  course  of  the  series  of  letters  demonstrate 
the  necessity  and  possibility  of  the  national  regener¬ 
ation  of  Israel,  are  developed  from  the  point  of  view 
of  modern  Jewish  science. 

“The  history  of  the  Post-talmudic  Period,”  says 


AUTHOR’S  PREFACE 


39 


the  famous  Jewish  historian,3  “still  possesses  a  na¬ 
tional  character;  it  is  by  no  means  merely  a  creed 
or  church  history.”  “As  the  history  of  a  people,”  he 
continues,  “our  history  is  far  from  being  a  mere 
chronicle  of  literary  events  or  church  history;  why, 
therefore,  characterize  it  as  such?  The  literature 
and  religious  development,  just  as  the  tragic  martyr¬ 
dom,  are  only  incidents  in  the  life  history  of  the 
people,  not  its  substance.” 

Historical  criticism  now  takes  the  place  of  the 
former  method  of  rationalism  employed  by  the  Re¬ 
formers,  who  wanted  to  separate  the  national  from 
the  religious  in  Judaism.  They  did  not  recognize  the 
fountain  of  life,  whence  flowed  our  entire  literature, 
Talmudic  as  well  as  Biblical.  So  much  did  they 
mistake  the  origin  and  cause  of  our  literature  that 
they  considered  that  great  organic  creation,  the  Tal¬ 
mud,  as  representing  merely  the  ever-changing  re¬ 
sult  of  an  attempt  to  accommodate  the  life  of  the 
people  to  ever-changing  conditions  and  environments. 

Many  who  have  emancipated  themselves  from  dry 
orthodoxy  have  recently  manifested  in  their  studies 
a  deepening  conception  of  national  Judaism;  and 
have  thus  brought  about  the  banishment  of  that 
superficial  rationalism  which  was  the  cause  of  a  grow¬ 
ing  indifference  to  things  Jewish  and  which  finally 
led  to  a  total  severance  from  Judaism.  But  we  find, 
on  the  other  hand,  among  the  nationalistic  ranks, 
rabbis,  such  as  I  used  to  meet  in  my  younger  days, 

3  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews,  German  edition,  Vol.  5,  Intro¬ 
duction,  p.  3. 


40 


AUTHOR’S  PREFACE 


who  do  not  fall  behind  the  Reformers  in  science  and 
knowledge.  The  new  seminaries,  modeled  after  the 
Breslau  school,  which  have  been  founded  in  every 
large  Jewish  center,  ought  to  make  it  their  aim  to 
bridge  the  gap  between  the  nihilism  of  the  Reformers, 
which  never  learned  anything,  and  the  stanch  con¬ 
servatism  of  the  orthodox,  which  never  forgot  any¬ 
thing.  A  mild,  reviving  breeze  blows  from  the 
direction  of  such  places  where,  a  few  years  ago, 
Orthodoxy,  on  the  one  hand,  threatened  to  freeze 
every  movement,  and  Reform,  on  the  other,  as  a  de¬ 
structive  simoom,  was  about  to  burn  up  everything 
and  sweep  all  vestiges  of  the  ancient  religion  be¬ 
fore  it. 

The  general  history  of  social  and  political  life,  as 
well  as  the  national  movement  of  modern  nations, 
will  be  drawn  upon,  so  as  to  throw  light  upon  the 
undischarged  function  of  Judaism.  These  sources 
will  be  utilized,  furthermore,  to  demonstrate  that  the 
present  political  situation  demands  the  establishment 
of  Jewish  colonies  at  the  Suez  Canal  and  on  the 
banks  of  the  Jordan.  And,  finally,  these  illustrations 
will  be  employed  to  point  out  the  hitherto  neglected 
fact,  that  behind  the  problems  of  nationality  and  free¬ 
dom  there  is  a  still  deeper  problem  which  cannot  be 
solved  by  mere  phrases,  namely,  the  race  question, 
which  is  as  old  as  history  itself  and  which  must  be 
solved  before  attempting  the  solution  of  the  political 
and  social  problems. 

In  order  to  anticipate  unjustifiable  criticism  of  my 
views  by  followers  of  the  theory  of  German  race 


AUTHOR’S  PREFACE 


41 


Chauvinism,  as  well  as  by  those  Jews  whose  philoso¬ 
phy  has  not  sufficiently  progressed,  I  have  thought 
it  necessary  to  collect  the  ideas  bearing  on  the  sub¬ 
ject,  which  are  scattered  through  the  letters,  into  one 
place,  the  Epilogue.  The  epilogue,  as  well  as  the 
notes,  is  the  right  place  for  a  more  lengthy  philo¬ 
sophical  discussion  and  scientific  demonstration  of  the 
principles  which  have  been  referred  to  somewhat  su¬ 
perficially  in  the  letters  themselves. 


FIRST  LETTER 


The  return  home — Jewish  women — The  source  of  the 

historical  religion — Family  love — Mater  dolorosa. 

After  an  estrangement  of  twenty  years,  I  am  back 
with  my  people.  I  have  come  to  be  one  of  them 
again,  to  participate  in  the  celebration  of  the  holy 
days,  to  share  the  memories  and  hopes  of  the  nation, 
to  take  part  in  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  warfare 
going  on  within  the  House  of  Israel,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  between  our  people  and  the  surrounding  civil¬ 
ized  nations,  on  the  other;  for  though  the  Jews  have 
lived  among  the  nations  for  almost  two  thousand 
years,  they  cannot,  after  all,  become  a  mere  part  of 
the  organic  whole. 

A  thought  which  I  believed  to  be  forever  buried 
in  my  heart,  has  been  revived  in  me  anew.  It  is  the 
thought  of  my  nationality,  which  is  inseparably  con¬ 
nected  with  the  ancestral  heritage  and  the  memories 
of  the  Holy  Land,  the  Eternal  City,  the  birthplace 
of  the  belief  in  the  divine  unity  of  life,  as  well  as  the 
hope  in  the  future  brotherhood  of  men. 

For  a  number  of  years  this  half-strangled  thought 
stirred  within  my  breast  and  clamored  for  expres¬ 
sion.  I  lacked  the  strength  to  swerve  suddenly  from 
my  beaten  track,  which  seemed  to  be  so  far  from 
the  road  of  Judaism,  to  a  new  path  which  had  un- 

43 


44 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


folded  itself  before  me  in  the  hazy  distance,  in  vague 
and  dim  outline. 

Is  it  mere  chance,  that  whenever  I  stand  at  a  new 
turn  in  my  life,  there  appears  in  my  path  an  un¬ 
happy  woman,  who  imparts  to  me  daring  and  cour¬ 
age  to  travel  the  unknown  road? 

Oh,  how  stupid  are  those  who  minimize  the  value 
of  woman’s  influence  upon  the  development  of  Ju¬ 
daism!  Was  it  not  said  of  the  Jews,  that  they  were 
redeemed  from  Egypt  because  of  the  merit  of  the 
pious  women,  and  that  the  future  redemption  will 
be  brought  about  through  them?  1 

It  was  only  when  I  saw  you  in  anguish  and  sorrow 
that  my  heart  opened  and  the  cover  of  my  slumbering, 
national  feeling  was  thrown  off.  I  have  discovered 
the  fountain  whence  flows  your  belief  in  the  eternity 
of  the  spirit. 

Your  infinite  soul-sorrow,  expressed  on  the  death 
of  one  dear  to  you,  brought  about  my  decision  to  step 
forth  as  a  champion  of  the  national  renaissance  of 
our  people.  Such  love  which,  like  maternal  love,  flows 
out  of  the  very  life-blood  and  yet  is  as  pure  as  the 
divine  spirit;  such  infinite  love  for  family  can  have 
its  seat  only  in  a  Jewish  heart.  And  this  love  is  the 
natural  source  whence  springs  the  higher,  intellectual 
love  of  God  which,  according  to  Spinoza,  is  the  high¬ 
est  point  to  which  the  spirit  can  rise.  Out  of  this 
inexhaustible  fountain  of  family  love  have  the  re¬ 
deemers  of  humanity  drawn  their  inspiration. 

“In  thee,”  says  the  divine  genius  of  the  Jewish 
1  Cf.  Note  I  at  end  of  book. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM  45 

family,  “shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be 
blessed.”  2  Every  Jew  has  within  him  the  potential¬ 
ity  of  a  Messiah  and  every  Jewess  that  of  a  Mater 
dolorosa. 


2  Genesis  xii,  3. 


SECOND  LETTER 


Thoughts  on  death  and  resurrection — Family  tombs 
— Kindred  souls  —  Jewish  and  Hindu  saints — 
Schopenhauer — The  end  of  days — The  Sabbath  of 
History . 

Both  sorrow  and  joy  are  contagious.  You,  my 
friend,  have  imbued  me  with  your  thoughts  on  death 
and  resurrection.  Heretofore,  I  have  never  visited 
a  cemetery,  but  now  the  place  holds  an  attraction  for 
me.  For  the  first  time,  since  the  untimely  death  of 
my  mother,  I  visited  the  place  where  she  lies  buried 
and  where  later,  during  my  absence  from  home,  they 
laid  my  father  to  rest.  I  had  forgotten  the  prayer 
usually  read  by  Jews  over  the  graves  of  their  de¬ 
parted,  and  in  ignorance  my  lips  murmured  the  pas¬ 
sage  from  the  second  of  the  eighteen  benedictions : 
“Thou,  O  Lord,  art  mighty  forever,  thou  restorest 
the  dead  to  life  .  .  .  ,”  when  suddenly  I  noticed 

a  lone  flower  on  a  nearby  grave.  Mechanically  I 
picked  it,  carried  it  home  with  me  and  put  it  among 
my  papers.  Only  later,  I  learned  whose  earthly  re¬ 
mains  rest  beneath  that  mound.  I  knew  then  that 
the  treasure,  as  you  named  the  flower,  belongs  to 
you  alone. 

There  are  mystic  relations  between  the  living  and 
the  dead,  though  the  nature  and  character  of  the 

46 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


47 


communion  will  forever  remain  an  unsolved  riddle. 
More  than  your  wonderful  dreams,  do  my  experiences 
in  the  waking  state  confirm  the  influence  that  the 
departed  exert  on  the  fate  of  those  who  remain 
behind. 

“The  departed  souls  continue  to  live  in  spirit.” 

And  therefore  do  I  love  also  death.  But  must  I  then 
hate  life?  Nay,  I  love  life  as  well,  only  I  love  it  in 
the  sense  the  greatest  thinker  of  the  centuries,  Spi¬ 
noza,  loved  it.  The  more  humanitarian,  the  holier,  the 
more  divine  life  is,  the  more  does  it  appear  that  life 
and  death  are  of  equal  value  and  equal  worth. 

The  Jews  alone  were  able  to  rise  to  that  spiritual 
height,  where  life  and  death  appear  to  be  of  equal 
value ;  and  yet  they  never  renounced  life,  but  clung  to 
it  tenaciously.  Already  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  a 
Jew,  who  has  since  become  a  redeemer  among  the  gen¬ 
tiles,  found  an  extra-mundane  point  of  support,  from 
which  he  wished  to  lift  the  world  from  its  poles.1 

The  great  teachers  of  the  knowledge  of  God  were 
always  Jews.  Our  people  not  only  created  the  no¬ 
blest  religion  of  the  ancient  world,  a  religion  which  is 
destined  to  become  the  common  property  of  the 
entire  civilized  world,  but  continued  to  develop  it, 
keeping  pace  with  the  progress  of  the  human  spirit. 
And  this  mission  will  remain  with  the  Jews  until  the 
end  of  days,  i.e.,  until  the  time  when,  according  to 

1  See  Note  II  at  end  of  book.  Hess  alludes  here  to  the 
famous  saying  of  Archimedes:  “Give  me  a  place  to  stand  and 
I  will  move  the  earth,” — Translator, 


48 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


the  promise  of  our  Prophets,  the  world  will  be  filled 
with  the  knowledge  of  God.  The  “end  of  days,”  so 
often  spoken  of  by  the  Prophets,  is  not  to  be  under¬ 
stood  to  mean,  as  some  misinterpret  it,  the  end  of  the 
world,  but  it  denotes  the  period  when  the  develop¬ 
ment  and  education  of  humanity  will  reach  their  high¬ 
est  point. 

We  are  on  the  eve  of  the  Sabbath  of  History  and 
should  prepare  for  our  last  mission  through  a 
thorough  understanding  of  our  historical  religion. 

We  cannot  understand  a  single  word  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  so  long  as  we  do  not  possess  the  point 
of  view  of  the  genius  of  the  Jewish  nation  which 
produced  these  writings.  Nothing  is  more  foreign 
to  the  spirit  of  Judaism  than  the  idea  of  the  salva¬ 
tion  of  the  individual  which,  according  to  the  modern 
conception,  is  the  corner-stone  of  religion.  Judaism 
has  never  drawn  any  line  of  separation  between  the 
individual  and  the  family,  the  family  and  the  nation, 
the  nation  and  humanity  as  a  whole,  humanity  and 
the  cosmos,  nor  between  creation  and  the  Creator. 
Judaism  has  no  other  dogma  but  the  teaching  of 
the  Unity.  But  this  dogma  is  with  Judaism,  not  a 
mere  fossilized  and  therefore  barren  belief,  but  a 
living,  continually  recreating  principle  of  knowledge. 
Judaism  is  rooted  in  the  love  of  the  family;  patriot¬ 
ism  and  nationalism  are  the  flowers  of  its  spirit,  and 
the  coming  regenerated  state  of  human  Society  will 
be  its  ripe  fruit.  Judaism  would  have  shared  the  fate 
of  other  religions  which  were  fossilized  through  their 
dogmas  and  which  will  finally  disappear  through  the 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


49 


conflict  with  science,  had  it  not  been  for  the  fact  that 
its  religious  teachings  are  the  product  of  life.  Juda¬ 
ism  is  not  a  passive  religion,  but  an  active  life  factor, 
which  has  coalesced  with  the  national  consciousness 
into  one  organic  whole.  It  is  primarily  the  expres¬ 
sion  of  a  nationality  whose  history,  for  thousands  of 
years,  coincides  with  the  history  of  the  development 
of  humanity ;  and  the  Jews  are  a  nation  which,  having 
once  acted  as  the  leaven  of  the  social  world,  is  des¬ 
tined  to  be  resurrected  with  the  rest  of  civilized 
nations. 


THIRD  LETTER 

Immortality  —  Rabbi  Jochanan  —  Nachmamdes  — 
Messianic  travails  —  Pa  ter  nos  ter  —  Solidari  ty  — 
The  call  of  Fra/nce  and  the  rambling  of  the  reac¬ 
tionaries, , 

You  wonder  why  it  is  that  there  is  no  mention  of 
the  doctrine  of  immortality  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  Agadic  interpretations  of  verses,  as  well  as  the 
manipulations  of  certain  Biblical  passages  by  modern 
Jewish  and  Christian  exegetes,  which  tend  to  infer 
from  these  verses  and  passages  the  belief  in  immor¬ 
tality,  do  not  satisfy  you,  and  rightly  so.  You  argue, 
that  if  Moses  and  the  Prophets  had  believed  in  a  life 
beyond  the  grave,  in  the  Christian  sense,  they  would 
have  stated  the  fact  as  explicitly  as  did  the  writers 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  would  not  have  limited 
reward  and  punishment  to  the  life  of  this  world  alone. 
I  do  not  deny  the  fact  that  there  is  no  mention  of 
immortality  in  the  Old  Testament.  But  if  you  re¬ 
proach  our  Holy  Scriptures  for  passing  over  such  an 
important  doctrine  in  silence,  you  forget  the  view¬ 
point  of  the  genius  of  the  Jewish  nation  which  pro¬ 
duced  these  Scriptures.  You  overlook  the  point  of 
view  of  our  sacred  history,  namely,  the  genetic  con¬ 
ception  which  never  separated  the  individual  from 
the  race,  the  nation  from  humanity,  and  the  created 

50 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


51 


world  from  the  Creator.  You  forget  that  the  part 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  wherein  there  is  no  mention 
of  immortality  was  written  at  a  time  when  the  Jew¬ 
ish  nation  was  still  in  existence,  and  therefore  there 
was  no  need  of  a  belief  in  a  resurrection.  The  Jewish 
belief  in  immortality  is  inseparable  from  the  national- 
humanitarian  Messianic  idea.  “It  is  only  with  the 
coming  of  the  Messiah  and  the  establishing  of  the 
Messianic  kingdom  that  the  purpose  of  creation  will 
be  accomplished,”  says  R.  Jochanan,  one  of  the  lead¬ 
ing  Amoraim.  In  another  statement,  he  adds,  that 
“all  the  beautiful  visions  of  the  Prophets  refer  only 
to  the  Messianic  reign;  but  as  regards  the  world  to 
come,  its  character  and  nature  is  known  to  God 
alone.”  1  Even  in  later  Rabbinic  Judaism,  the  Rabbis 
never  separated  the  idea  of  a  future  world  from  the 
conception  of  the  Messianic  reign.  Nachmanides  in¬ 
sists,  in  contradiction  to  Maimonides,  upon  the  iden¬ 
tity  of  Olom  Habbo ,  “the  world  to  come,”  with  the 
Messianic  reign. 

There  was  no  necessity  for  Judaism  to  emphasize 
the  eternity  and  indestructibility  of  the  spirit,  for  its 
own  history  is  nothing  but  the  embodiment  of  this 
idea.  It  was  only  when  Judaism  was  threatened  with 
the  possibility  of  national  destruction,  as  early  as 
the  end  of  the  period  of  the  first  Temple,  that  along 
with  the  idea  of  national  destruction  and  the  hope 
of  a  national  rebirth,  there  arose  also  the  idea  of  the 
immortality  of  the  individual.  The  Prophet  Isaiah 

1  For  the  references  to  the  sayings  of  R.  Jochanan,  see 
Sanhedrin,  98b  and  99a .—Translator. 


52 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


already  draws  a  sharp  line  of  distinction  between 
those  nations  which  are  doomed  to  eternal  death  and 
Israel  who  is  destined  to  be  resurrected.  The  mo¬ 
mentary  death  of  Israel,  the  people  of  the  spirit,  is 
only  the  preliminary  stage  for  a  future  eternal  life. 
(Isa.  xxvi,  14-19.) 

Even  in  primitive  Christianity,  as  long  as  it  did 
not  separate  itself  completely  from  Judaism  and  the 
historical  cult,  the  Jewish  conception  still  survived, 
according  to  which  resurrection,  the  “Kingdom  of 
Heaven,”  and  “the  world  to  come,”  are  identical  with 
the  Messianic  age,  the  rebirth  of  the  Jewish  nation. 
The  coming  of  the  reign  of  the  spirit  is  heralded  in 
the  Gospels,  and  also  in  the  famous  prayer  of  Jewish 
origin,  “Pater  Noster”  “Our  Father,”  as  a  definite 
event  in  the  history  of  the  Jews. 

Even  the  latest  expression  of  the  Jewish  genius 
concerning  life  and  death,  namely,  the  teaching  of 
Spinoza,  has  nothing  in  common  with  the  sickly  atom¬ 
istic  conception  of  immortality,  a  conception  which 
dissolves  the  unity  of  life  either  in  a  spiritualistic 
way  or  in  a  materialistic  manner,  and  whose  highest 
religious  and  moral  principle  is  the  egoistic  maxim, 
“everyone  for  himself.”  No  nation  was  ever  so  far 
from  this  egoistic  principle  as  was  the  Jewish  people. 
With  the  Jews,  solidarity  and  social  responsibility 
were  always  the  fundamental  principles  of  life  and 
conduct.2 

2  The  solidarity  of  the  Jews  covers  also  the  Shem ,  i.e.,  the 
name  of  God.  The  Jewish  law  of  solidarity:  “All  Israelites 
are  responsible  for  one  another,”  is  expressed  also  in  the  form 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


53 


In  the  Sayings  of  the  Fathers ,  the  rule  of  bourgeois 
morality — “everyone  for  himself” — is  severely  con¬ 
demned,  and  is  declared  to  be  a  wicked  rule  of  con¬ 
duct.3  In  the  teaching  of  Spinoza,  as  in  the  teach¬ 
ing  of  the  Jewish  saints,  the  individual  is  not  treated 
as  a  separate  entity,  but  as  a  part  of  a  whole.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  Spinoza,  eternity  does  not  begin  with  our 
death,  but  always  exists,  is  always  present  even  as 
God  himself. 

Very  few,  indeed,  possess  the  noble  spirit  which 
animated  the  Jewish  saints.  Most  people  are  anxious 
to  secure  as  much  immortality  as  possible  for  them¬ 
selves,  and  for  themselves  alone.  True  it  is,  that  the 
“end  of  days,”  when  the  knowledge  of  God  will  fill 
the  earth,  is  still  far  off;  yet  we  firmly  believe  that 

of  Kiddush  Hashem,  the  Sanctification  of  God’s  name;  i.e.,  the 
Jew  is  urged  to  act  in  a  more  unselfish  spirit  than  the  law 
requires,  and  even  to  sacrifice  his  own  interests  and  person, 
that  he  may  thereby  reflect  glory  upon  the  name  of  Judaism 
and  all  other  Jews. 

3  Compare  Note  V  at  the  end,  where  the  opinion  of  the 
Rabbis  in  the  Sayings  of  the  Fathers  about  the  various  stand¬ 
ards  of  conduct  in  relation  to  “mine  and  thine”  are  given  in 
detail.  In  regard  to  the  ordinary  conception  of  common  moral¬ 
ity  of  everyone  for  himself,”  it  is  said  there:  He  who  says: 
“What  is  mine  is  mine  and  what  is  thine  is  thine,  his  is  a 
neutral  character some  say  this  is  a  character  like  that  of 
Sodom.”  ( Ethics ,  V.  13.) 

Another  saying  in  Ahoth,  which  is  also  found  in  Ahoth  d’  R. 
Nathan  in  an  imperfect  and  contradictory  form,  admonishes 
us  that  we  should  not  be  like  servants  who  serve  for  the  sake 
of  reward  but  like  children  who  perform  their  duty  because 
of  the  reverence  inspired  in  them  by  the  majesty  of  the  father 
of  all  being.  This  teaching  seems  to  be  indifferent  to  the 
doctrine  of  immortality.  (Compare  Epilogue,  3.) 


54 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


the  time  will  come  when  the  holy  spirit  of  our  nation 
will  become  the  property  of  humanity  and  the  earth 
will  become  a  grand  temple  wherein  the  spirit  of 
God  will  dwell.  In  the  Bible,  the  reign  of  the  spirit 
is  declared  to  be  a  future  event,  and  even  long  after¬ 
ward  people  relegated  these  prophetic  visions  to  the 
realm  of  the  world  to  come — “ Olam  Habbo” — and 
did  not  connect  them  with  the  present  life.  Spinoza 
was  the  first  to  conceive  the  reign  of  the  spirit  as  an 
existing  thing,  as  a  factor  in  the  present  life.  It  is 
true,  the  reign  of  the  spirit  exists  already,  but  only 
as  a  germ  of  spiritual  light.  To  develop  this  germ 
to  its  fullest  possibilities,  so  that  it  will  create  social 
values,  there  labor,  along  with  the  Jewish  people,  the 
most  intellectual,  moral  and  creative  of  modern  na¬ 
tions,  namely,  Germany,  France  and  England.  These 
three  nations  have  contributed  greatly  to  the  store  of 
civilization,  each  its  distinctive  share.  Germany  has 
built  the  road  to  philosophy,  France  has  thrown  open 
to  all  nations  the  way  to  social  and  political  changes 
and  improvements,  and  has  also  blazed  the  path 
of  progress  for  the  natural  sciences.  England,  like 
Germany,  has  followed,  slowly  but  surely,  her  own 
lead,  namely,  that  of  the  progress  and  development 
of  industry. 

The  Jews  felt  long  ago  that  the  struggle  for  regen¬ 
eration  waged  by  the  nations,  together  with  France, 
is  their  own  cause,  and  have  therefore  everywhere 
joined,  enthusiastically  and  voluntarily,  the  ranks  of 
the  followers  of  the  political-social  movements.  “The 
time  has  arrived,”  says  a  well-known  French  demo- 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


55 


crat  to  the  Jews,  “when  you  should  think  less  of 
others  and  more  of  yourselves,  and  commence  to  work 
for  your  own  regeneration.4  The  latter,  however, 
does  not  exclude  the  former.  When  I  labor  for  the 
regeneration  of  my  own  nation,  I  do  not  thereby  re¬ 
nounce  my  humanistic  aspiration.  The  national  move¬ 
ment  of  the  present  day  is  only  another  step  on  the 
road  of  progress  which  began  with  the  French  Revo¬ 
lution.  The  French  nation  has,  since  the  great  Revo¬ 
lution,  been  calling  to  the  other  nations  for  help. 
But  the  nations  have  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  voice 
from  the  distance  and  have  lent  a  not  unwilling  ear 
to  the  tumult  of  reaction  in  their  own  midst.  To-day, 
this  roar  deafens  only  the  people  in  certain  parts  of 
Germany,  those  who,  by  dint  of  political  trickery, 
are  aroused  to  the  pitch  of  enthusiasm  for  the  kings 
and  war  lords.  But  the  other  nations  hear  and 
follow  the  call  of  France.  The  call  has  reached 
also  our  ancient  nation,  and  I  would  unite  my  voice 
with  that  of  France,  that  I  may  at  least  warn  my 
racial  brothers  in  Germany  against  listening  to  the 
loud  noise  of  the  reactionaries.5 

4  See  the  extracts  from  the  pamphlet:  The  New  Oriental 
Problem,  quoted  in  the  eleventh  letter. 

5  See  Epilogue,  6. 


FOURTH  LETTER 


German  Anti-Semitism — Patriotic  romanticists  and 
philosophic  hook-dealers — Otto  Wigand — Berthold 
Auerbach  —  Moleschott  —  Dr.  Gallavardin  —  Re¬ 
form  and  Jewish  noses — A  photographic  picture 
— Hebrew  prayers — Patriotism — My  grandfather 
—  Our  Mother  Rachel  —  National  sorrow  —  The 
Black  Sabbath. 

It  seems  that  German  education  is  not  compatible 
with  our  Jewish  national  aspirations.  Had  I  not  once 
lived  in  France,  it  would  never  have  entered  my  mind 
to  interest  myself  with  the  revival  of  Jewish  nation¬ 
ality.  Our  views  and  strivings  are  determined  by 
the  social  environment  which  surrounds  us.  Every 
living,  acting  people,  like  every  active  individual,  has 
its  special  field.  Indeed,  every  man,  every  member 
of  the  historical  nations,  is  a  political,  or  as  we  say 
at  present,  a  social  animal ;  yet  within  this  sphere  of 
the  common  social  world,  there  are  special  places 
reserved  by  Nature  for  individuals  according  to  their 
particular  calling.  The  specialty  of  the  German  of 
the  higher  class,  of  course,  is  his  interest  in  abstract 
thought ;  and  because  he  is  too  much  of  a  universal 
philosopher,  it  is  difficult  for  him  to  be  inspired  by 
national  tendencies.  “Its  whole  tendency,”  my  former 
publisher,  Otto  Wigand,  once  wrote  to  me,  when  I 

56 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM  57 

showed  him  an  outline  of  a  work  on  Jewish  national 
aspirations,  “is  contrary  to  my  pure  human  nature.” 

The  “pure  human  nature”  of  the  Germans  is,  in 
reality,  the  character  of  the  pure  German  race,  which 
rises  to  the  conception  of  humanity  in  theory  only, 
but  in  practice  it  has  not  succeeded  in  overcoming 

B  i  O 

the  natural  sympathies  and  antipathies  of  the  race. 
German  antagonism  to  Jewish  national  aspiration 
has  a  double  origin,  though  the  motives  are  really 
contrary  to  each  other.  The  duplicity  and  contrari¬ 
ety  of  the  human  personality,  such  as  we  can  see 
in  the  union  of  the  spiritual  and  the  natural,  the 
theoretical  and  the  practical  sides,  are  in  no  other 
nation  so  sharply  marked  in  their  points  of  opposi¬ 
tion  as  in  the  German.  Jewish  national  aspirations 
are  antagonistic  to  the  theoretical  cosmopolitan  ten¬ 
dencies  of  the  German.  But  in  addition  to  this,  the 
German  opposes  Jewish  national  aspirations  because 
of  his  racial  antipathy,  from  which  even  the  noblest 
Germans  have  not  as  yet  emancipated  themselves. 
The  publisher,  whose  “pure  human”  conscience  re¬ 
volted  against  publishing  a  book  advocating  the  re¬ 
vival  of  Jewish  nationality,  published  books  preaching 
hatred  to  Jews  and  Judaism  without  the  slightest 
remorse,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  motive  of  such 
works  is  essentially  opposed  to  the  “pure  human 
conscience.”  This  contradictory  action  was  due  to 
inborn  racial  antagonism  to  the  Jews.1  But  the  Ger¬ 
man,  it  seems,  has  no  clear  conception  of  his  racial 
prejudices ;  he  sees  in  his  egoistic  as  well  as  in  his 
1  See  Note  III  at  end  of  book. 


58 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


spiritual  endeavors,  not  German  or  Teutonic,  but 
“humanitarian  tendencies” ;  and  he  does  not  know 
that  he  follows  the  latter  only  in  theory,  while  in 
practice  he  clings  to  his  egoistic  ideas. 

Progressive  German  Jews,  also,  seem  to  think  that 
they  have  sufficient  reason  for  turning  away  from  the 
Jewish  national  movement.  My  dear  old  friend,  Ber- 
thold  Auerbach,  is  disappointed  with  me,  just  as  much 
as  my  former  publisher,  though  not  on  the  ground  of 
“pure  human  conscience.”  He  complains  bitterly 
about  my  attitude  and  finally  exclaims:  “Who  ap¬ 
pointed  you  as  a  prince  and  judge  over  us?”  2  It 
seems  that  on  account  of  the  hatred  which  surrounds 
him  on  all  sides,  the  German  Jew  is  determined  to 
estrange  himself  from  Judaism  as  far  as  possible, 
and  endeavors  even  to  deny  his  race.  No  reform  of 
the  Jewish  religion,  however  extreme,  is  radical 
enough  for  the  educated  German  Jew.  But  the  en¬ 
deavors  are  vain.  Even  conversion  itself  does  not 
relieve  the  Jew  from  the  enormous  pressure  of  Ger¬ 
man  Anti-Semitism.  The  German  hates  the  Jewish 
religion  less  than  the  race;  he  objects  less  to  the 
Jews’  peculiar  beliefs  than  to  their  peculiar  noses. 
Neither  reform,  nor  conversion,  nor  emancipation 

2  Exodus  ii,  14.  Auerbach  gave  me  great  satisfaction  by 
quoting  the  biblical  verse  in  the  original  Hebrew.  He  recog¬ 
nizes  my  right  to  express  my  Jewish  sympathies  and  feelings, 
to  which  he  is  not  averse.  But  he  claims  that  such  an  expres¬ 
sion  should  bear  more  of  the  character  of  personal  sentiment 
and  not  be  made  public.  Such  action,  according  to  him,  is 
dangerous  and  can  become  a  “fire  brand”  in  the  hands  of  the 
Anti-Semites. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


59 


throw  open  to  the  Jew  the  gates  of  social  life,  hence 
their  anxiety  to  deny  their  racial  descent.  Molleschot, 
in  his  Physiological  Sketches  (p.  251),  tells  how  the 
son  of  a  converted  Jew  used  to  spend  hours  every 
morning  at  the  looking-glass,  comb  in  hand,  endeav¬ 
oring  to  straighten  his  curly  hair,  so  as  to  give  it 
a  more  Teutonic  appearance.  But  as  little  as  the 
“radical”  Reform  movement — an  appellation  which 
characterizes  it  so  well,  inasmuch  as  it  lays  the  ax 
at  the  root  of  Judaism  and  its  national  historical 
cult — accomplished  its  aim,  so  little  will  the  tendency 
of  some  Jews  to  deny  their  racial  descent  fulfil  their 
purpose.  Jewish  noses  cannot  be  reformed,  and  the 
black,  wavy  hair  of  the  Jews  will  not  change  through 
conversion  into  blond,  nor  can  its  curves  be  straight¬ 
ened  out  by  constant  combing.  The  Jewish  race  is 
one  of  the  primary  races  of  mankind  that  has  re¬ 
tained  its  integrity,  in  spite  of  the  continual  change 
of  its  climatic  environment,  and  the  Jewish  type  has 
conserved  its  purity  through  the  centuries. 

On  the  western  mountain  slope  which  encloses  the 
City  of  the  Dead,  at  Thebes,  in  Egypt,  there  still 
exists  the  tomb  of  one  of  the  ancient  architects,  who 
supervised  the  construction  of  the  king’s  buildings, 
on  which  are  depicted  reliefs  of  all  the  works  con¬ 
structed  under  his  direction.  Here  we  can  see  how 
the  obelisks  were  erected,  the  sphinxes  hewn  out  of 
the  rock,  the  palaces  built,  as  well  as  how  all  the 
preliminary  labor  was  performed.  Here  are  scenes 
representing  white  Asiatic  slaves  making  bricks, 
many  of  which  are  piled  up  near  the  building,  while 


60 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


other  slaves  are  carrying  stones  away.  At  a  little 
distance  from  the  group  of  laboring  slaves  stands  the 
overseer  with  raised  whip  in  his  hand.  The  tomb 
was  built,  according  to  the  inscription,  about  the  time 
of  Moses,  and  in  the  reliefs  of  the  Asiatic  slaves  there 
is  a  resemblance  to  the  present  Jewish  type.3  Later 
Egyptian  monuments,  likewise,  show  Jewish  reliefs 
which  strikingly  resemble  our  modern  Jews. 

The  Jewish  race,  which  was  so  hard  pressed  and 
almost  destroyed  by  many  nations  of  antiquity,  would 
have  disappeared  long  ago,  in  the  sea  of  the  Indo- 
Germanic  nations,  had  it  not  been  endowed  with  the 
gift  of  retaining  its  peculiar  type  under  all  circum¬ 
stances  and  of  reproducing  it.  If  Judaism  owes  its 
immortality  to  the  remarkable  religious  productivity 
of  the  Jewish  genius,  this  genius  itself  owes  its  ex¬ 
istence  to  the  fertility  of  the  Jewish  race.  The  words 
of  the  Bible,  “But  the  more  they  afflicted  them,  the 
more  they  multiplied  and  the  more  they  spread 
abroad,  and  the  land  was  filled  with  them,”  which  were 
written  of  the  Jews  in  Egypt,  are  true  of  them  also 
during  the  third  exile. 

Of  the  predominance  of  the  Jewish  type  in  cases 
of  intermarriage  with  members  of  the  Indo-Germanic 
race,  I  can  quote  an  example  from  my  own  experi¬ 
ence.  It  is  a  well-known  fact,  that  in  unions  between 
members  of  the  Mongolian  with  those  of  the  Indo- 
Germanic  race,  the  Mongolian  type  predominates ; 
for  example,  the  Russian  nobles,  who  have  little  Mon¬ 
golian  blood  in  their  veins,  yet  display  in  their  physi- 
3  Sinai  and  Golgotha,  by  F.  A.  Strauss,  p.  69. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


61 


ognomy  Mongolian  features  even  to  the  present  day.4 
Among  my  friends  there  is  a  Russian  nobleman  who, 
like  all  the  Russian  boyars,  betrays  his  mixed  de¬ 
scent,  the  Mongolian,  by  his  features,  and  the  Indo- 
Germanic,  by  his  fine  intellect.  This  friend  married 
a  Polish  Jewess,  by  whom  he  had  a  number  of  sons, 
who  all  possess  Jewish  features  in  marked  degree. 
As  you  see,  my  esteemed  friend,  Jews  and  Jewesses 
endeavor,  in  vain,  to  obliterate  their  descent  through 
conversion  or  intermarriage  with  the  Indo-Germanic 
and  Mongolian  races,  for  the  Jewish  type  is  inde¬ 
structible.  Nay  more,  the  type  is  undeniable,  even 
in  its  most  beautiful  representatives,  where  it  ap¬ 
proaches  the  ancient  Greek  type,  and  even  surpasses 
it  with  its  peculiar  soul-expression.  Hence  I  was  not 
surprised,  when  traveling  through  Antwerp,  I  showed 
an  artist  the  beautiful  picture  known  to  you,  that  he, 
enthusiastically  admiring  the  image  that  would  have 
done  credit  to  a  Phidias,  exclaimed:  “I  will  wager 
that  it  is  the  picture  of  a  Jewess.” 

The  Jewish  race,  throughout  the  world,  possesses 
the  ability  to  acclimatize  itself  more  than  all  other 
races.  Just  as  in  the  native  land  of  the  Jews,  Pal¬ 
estine,  there  grow  plants  of  the  southern  and  of  the 
northern  zones,  so  does  this  people,  of  the  temperate 
clime,  thrive  in  all  zones.  A  French  physician,  Dr. 
Gallavardin,  has  demonstrated  this  physiological  phe- 

4  Russia  was  overrun  in  the  thirteenth  century  by  Mongolian 
hordes  and  for  a  time  was  subject  to  one  of  the  Tartar  king¬ 
doms  established  on  its  borders.  During  this  time  the  two 
races  mingled  freely,  so  that,  as  a  result,  the  Mongolian  type 
is  quite  prevalent  among  the  Russians—  Translator. 


62 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


nomenon  by  many  statistical  data,  in  his  work,  The 
Position  of  the  Jews  in  the  World. 

And  just  as  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  entertain 
any  prejudice  against  my  own  race,  which  has  played 
such  an  important  role  in  universal  history  and 
which  is  destined  for  a  still  greater  one  in  the  future, 
so  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  show  against  the  holy 
language  of  our  fathers  the  antipathy  of  those  who 
endeavor  to  eliminate  Hebrew  from  Jewish  life,  and 
even  supersede  it  by  German  inscriptions  in  the  ceme¬ 
tery.  I  was  always  exalted  by  the  Hebrew  prayers. 
I  seem  to  hear  in  them  an  echo  of  fervent  pleadings 
and  passionate  entreaties,  issuing  from  suffering 
hearts  of  a  thousand  generations.  Seldom  do  these 
heart-stirring  prayers  fail  to  impress  those  who  are 
able  to  understand  their  meaning.  The  most  touch¬ 
ing  point  about  these  Hebrew  prayers  is,  that  they 
are  really  an  expression  of  the  collective  Jewish 
spirit;  they  do  not  plead  for  the  individual,  but  for 
the  entire  Jewish  race.  The  pious  Jew  is  above  all 
a  Jewish  patriot.  The  “new”  Jew,  who  denies  the 
existence  of  the  Jewish  nationality,  is  not  onlj>  a 
deserter  in  the  religious  sense,  but  is  also  a  traitor 
to  his  people,  his  race  and  even  to  his  family.  If  it 
were  true  that  Jewish  emancipation  in  exile  is  in¬ 
compatible  with  Jewish  nationality,  then  it  were  the 
duty  of  the  Jews  to  sacrifice  the  former  for  the  sake 
of  the  latter.  This  point,  however,  may  need  a  more 
elaborate  explanation,5  but  that  the  Jew  must  be 
above  all  a  Jewish  patriot,  needs  no  proof  to  those 
c  See  Note  IV  at  end  of  book. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


63 


who  have  received  a  Jewish  education.  Jewish  patri¬ 
otism  is  not  a  cloudy  Germanic  abstraction,  which 
dissolves  itself  in  discussions  about  being  and  appear¬ 
ance,  realism  and  idealism,  but  a  true,  natural  feel¬ 
ing,  the  tangibility  and  simplicity  of  which  require 
no  demonstration,  nor  can  it  be  disposed  of  by  a 
demonstration  to  the  contrary. 

My  grandfather  once  showed  me  some  olives  and 
dates,  and  remarked,  with  beaming  eyes,  “These  were 
raised  in  Eretz  Yisroel .”  Everything  that  reminds 
the  pious  Jew  of  Palestine  is  as  dear  to  him  as  the 
sacred  relics  of  his  ancestral  house.  It  is  customary 
that  a  bag  containing  earth  from  the  Holy  Land  is 
put  into  the  grave  of  every  pious  Jew.  In  this  prac¬ 
tice,  however,  as  well  as  in  the  ritualistic  use  of  the 
citron  and  palm  branch  which,  like  the  bag  of  earth, 
are  imported  from  Palestine  at  great  expense,  there 
is  something  more  than  the  mere  carrying  out  of  a 
religious  precept  or  the  promptings  of  superstitious 
belief.  All  feast  and  fast  days  of  the  Jews,  their 
deep  piety  and  reverence  for  tradition,  which  almost 
apotheosizes  everything  Hebraic,  nay  even  the  entire 
Jewish  cult,  all  have  their  origin  in  the  patriotism 
of  the  Jewish  nation.  The  Jewish  “reformers,”  who 
have  emancipated  themselves  from  Jewish  nationality, 
understand  this  quite  well;  they  are  therefore  very 
careful  in  expressing  their  heartfelt  opinions.  They 
find  it  more  comfortable  to  take  refuge  in  the  false¬ 
hood  of  the  dualistic  theory,  which  sees  in  every 
natural  and  simple  feeling,  as  well  as  in  patriotism, 
a  double  essence — an  ideal  and  a  real.  This  dualistic 


64 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


theory  is  very  useful,  as  it  can  be  adjusted  at  will, 
either  to  the  one  point  of  view  or  to  the  other. 

This  false  theory  is  of  recent  German  invention  and 
need  not  be  taken  seriously.  Spinoza  conceived  Ju¬ 
daism  to  be  grounded  in  Nationalism,  and  held  that 
the  restoration  of  the  Jewish  kingdom  depends  en¬ 
tirely  upon  the  will  and  courage  of  the  Jewish  peo¬ 
ple.  Even  the  rationalistic  Mendelssohn  did  not  know 
of  a  cosmopolitan  Judaism.  It  is  only  in  modern 
times  that,  for  the  purposes  of  obtaining  equal  rights, 
some  German  Jews  denied  the  existence  of  Jewish 
nationality.  Moreover,  they  have  convinced  them¬ 
selves,  contrary  to  the  fact  that  the  further  existence 
of  Judaism  will  not  at  all  be  threatened  by  the  elim¬ 
ination  of  its  innermost  essence. 

True,  my  dear  friend,  it  is  a  fact  which  may  even 
come  to  the  attention  of  our  German  Jewish  re¬ 
formers,  that  the  Jewish  religion  is,  above  all,  Jew¬ 
ish  patriotism.  I  always  recall,  with  deep  emotion, 
the  scenes  that  I  lived  through  when  a  child,  at  the 
house  of  my  grandfather  at  Bonn,  on  the  fast-day 
commemorating  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  On 
the  first  day  of  the  month  of  Ab,  which  is  the  first 
of  the  nine  days  preceding  the  eventful  day,  the 
sorrow  which  had  been  manifested  since  the  beginning 
of  the  “three  weeks,”  assumed  a  more  perceptible 
form.  Even  the  Sabbath  day  lost  its  festive  charac¬ 
ter  during  these  days  of  national  mourning,  and  was 
named  “the  black  Sabbath.”  My  pious  grandfather 
was  one  of  those  revered  scholars  who,  though  not 
using  the  Torah  as  a  means  of  subsistence,  yet  pos- 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


65 


sessed  the  title  and  knowledge  of  a  rabbi.  Every 
evening,  at  the  close  of  his  business  day,  he  spent 
several  hours  in  studying  the  Talmud  and  its  com¬ 
mentaries.  But  in  the  “nine  days”  this  study  was 
interrupted,  and  instead  he  read  with  his  grandchil¬ 
dren  the  stories  and  legends  concerning  the  exile  of 
the  Jews  from  Jerusalem.  The  tears  fell  upon  the 
snow-white  beard  of  the  stern  old  man  as  he  read 
those  stories,  and  we  children,  too,  would  cry  and 
sob.  I  remember,  especially,  one  particular  passage 
which  impressed  us  both  deeply.  It  runs  as  follows : 

“When  the  children  of  Israel  were  led  into  captiv^ 
ity  by  the  soldiers  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  their  road  lay 
past  the  grave  of  our  Mother  Rachel.  As  they  ap¬ 
proached  the  grave,  a  bitter  wailing  was  heard.  It 
was  the  voice  of  Rachel,  weeping  at  the  fate  of  her 
unhappy  children.”  6 

You  can  now  discern  clearly  the  source  of  the 
Jewish  belief  in  immortality;  it  is  the  product  of  our 
remarkable  family  love.  Our  immortality  extends 
back  into  the  past  as  far  as  the  Patriarchs,  and  in 
the  future  to  Messiah’s  reign.  It  is  the  Jewish  con¬ 
ception  of  the  family  which  gave  rise  to  the  vivid 
belief  in  the  continuity  of  the  spirit  in  human  his¬ 
tory.  This  belief,  which  is  one  of  the  fairest  blos¬ 
soms  of  Judaism,  the  roots  of  which  are  to  be  found 
in  Jewish  family  love  and  the  trunk  in  Jewish  patri¬ 
otism,  has,  in  the  course  of  ages,  shrunk  to  the  belief 
in  the  atomistic  immortality  of  the  individual  soul; 
and  thus,  torn  from  its  roots  and  trunk,  has  withered 

6  Jeremiah  xxxi,  14. 


66 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


and  decayed.  It  is  only  in  the  Jewish  conception  of 
the  family  that  the  former  living  belief  is  still  re¬ 
tained.  When  modern  dualism  of  spirit  and  matter, 
the  result  of  the  separation  of  Christianity  from 
Judaism,  had  found  its  highest  expression  in  the 
works  of  the  last  Christian  philosopher,  Descartes, 
and  had  threatened  to  kill  all  unity  of  life,  there 
arose  again  out  of  Judaism  the  belief  in  the  existence 
of  one  eternal  force  in  Nature  and  history.  This 
belief  acted  as  a  bulwark  against  spiritual  egoism,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  materialistic  individualism  on  the 
other.7  Just  as  Christian  dualism  received  its  mortal 
blow  from  the  teachings  of  Spinoza,  so  does  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  the  ancient  Jewish  people,  with  its  model 
family  life,  act  as  an  antidote  against  this  disease 
of  dualism  in  practical  life.  Even  to-day  the  whole¬ 
some  influence  of  the  Jewish  family  life  is  noticeable 
in  literature,  art  and  science.  How  much  greater  will 
that  influence  be  when  once  again  we  create  history 
and  literature,  when  once  more  the  Torah  will  go 
forth  from  Zion  and  the  Word  of  the  Lord  from 
Jerusalem?  8 

7  The  monistic  teaching  of  Spinoza  is  here  referred  to  by 
Hess. — Translator . 

8  Micah  iv,  1;  Isaiah  ii,  2.  “But  in  the  last  days  it  shall 
come  to  pass  that  ....  the  Law  shall  go  forth  from  Zion, 
and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem.”  It  is  an  old 
prophecy,  repeated  in  identical  words  by  various  prophets, 
the  echo  of  which  reverberates  throughout  our  entire  history! 


FIFTH  LETTER 

Retrospect — The  Damascus  Affair — A  cry  of  an¬ 
guish —  Mamserbilbul ,  i.e.,  Blood  Accusation — 
Hep ,  Hep — The  escape  into  France — Arnold  Ruge 
Napoleon — An  honest  German — Teuto mani acs 
— J efferson — F atherlands  and  Sovereigns  —  Ubi 
bene  ibi  P atria — The  Jewish  incognito — The  re¬ 
ligion  of  death — Raise  your  standard  high ,  my 
people. 

Do  I  seriously  believe  in  the  redemption  from  ex¬ 
ile?  You  ask  this  question,  and  also  remind  me  that 
I  have  already  expressed  myself  in  my  two  earlier 
works,  The  Sacred  History  of  Humanity  and  The 
Triarchy  of  Europe ,  as  a  believer  in  the  fulfilment 
of  the  Messianic  hope.  You  are  certainly  going  far 
afield,  esteemed  friend,  in  holding  me  responsible  not 
only  for  my  present  opinions,  but  also  for  those  ex¬ 
pressed  long  ago.  Nevertheless,  you  are  right,  and 
I  assume  full  responsibility  for  my  ideas.  But  in  or¬ 
der  not  to  stray  too  far  from  the  thought  nearest  to 
my  heart  into  my  own  personal  history,  I  will  relate 
only  a  few  of  the  most  characteristic  episodes  of  my 
past,  which  will  elucidate  my  present  attitude  toward 
the  national  question. 

Twenty  years  ago,  when  an  absurd  and  false  accu- 

67 


68 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


sation  against  the  Jews  was  imported  into  Europe 
from  Damascus,1  it  evoked  in  the  hearts  of  the  Jews 
a  bitter  feeling  of  agony.  Then  it  dawned  upon  me 
for  the  first  time,  in  the  midst  of  my  socialistic  activ¬ 
ities,  that  I  belong  to  my  unfortunate,  slandered, 
despised  and  dispersed  people.  And  already,  then, 
though  I  was  greatly  estranged  from  Judaism,  I 
wanted  to  express  my  Jewish  patriotic  sentiment  in 
a  cry  of  anguish,  but  it  was  unfortunately  immedi¬ 
ately  stifled  in  my  heart  by  a  greater  pain  which  the 
suffering  of  the  European  Proletariat  evoked  in  me. 

With  other  nations,  there  is  strife  only  among  the 
various  parties,  but  the  Germans  clash  even  when 
they  belong  to  the  same  party.  The  members  of  my 
own  party  have  made  me  loathe  the  aspirations  of 
the  Germans,  and  by  their  actions  caused  me  to  go 
into  exile  several  years  before  the  triumphant 
reaction  changed  it  from  a  voluntary  act  into  an 
involuntary  one.  Only  a  short  time  after  the  Feb¬ 
ruary  revolution,  I  went  to  France  and  there  I 
learned  to  know  the  people  which,  in  the  present  cen¬ 
tury,  is  the  foremost  champion  of  social  liberty.  If 
this  people  submits  at  present  to  the  iron  dictator¬ 
ship  of  kinghood,  it  is  because  the  Emperor  is  true 

1  This  is  the  well-known  ritual  murder  case  of  Damascus, 
usually  referred  to  as  the  Damascus  affair,  of  1840.  The  num¬ 
ber  of  accused  Jews,  as  well  as  the  inquisitorial  methods  ap¬ 
plied  in  extorting  a  confession,  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
leading  Jews  of  Europe,  including  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  and 
Isaac  Cremieux,  through  whose  efforts  the  Government  of 
France  and  England  finally  intervened  and  obtained  the  re¬ 
lease  of  the  accused. — Translator. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


69 


to  his  revolutionary  descent,2  not  in  word  alone,  but 
also  in  deed.  The  moment  dynastic  interests  conflict 
with  the  aspirations  and  strivings  of  the  French 
people,  kinghood  will  disappear  from  the  soil  of 
France. 

After  the  coup  d'etat  of  the  reaction,3  I  withdrew 
from  politics  and  devoted  myself  exclusively  to  na¬ 
tural  sciences.  Old  Dr.  Arnold  Ruge,  a  follower  of 
the  Young  Hegelians,4  was  much  shocked  at  my  occu¬ 
pation,  which  he  termed  materialism ;  he  could  never 
forgive  the  “Communist  Rabbi  Moses”  for  his  heresy 
in  forsaking  the  “ideal.”  He  hinted  frequently,  in 
his  lectures  at  the  German  Museum,  that  this  scien¬ 
tific  materialism  is  in  reality  only  Imperialism,  but 
not  of  the  German-Barbarossa  type,5  but  only  of  the 
Romance-Bonapartistic  stamp.  What  relation  there 
is  between  the  study  of  the  natural  sciences  and  Bona¬ 
partism,  the  old  Ruge  never  explained  clearly.  Mean¬ 
while,  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  Italian  War  of 

2  The  Emperor  of  France  at  the  time  was  Napoleon  III,  the 
nephew  of  Napoleon. — Translator. 

3  This  refers  to  the  crushing  of  the  popular  revolution  in 
Germany  by  Prussia,  in  the  year  1849 .-^Translator. 

4  Young  Hegelianism  is  the  name  given  to  the  radical  inter¬ 
pretation  of  Hegel’s  philosophy.  Its  followers  were  mostly 
revolutionaries  and  socialists.  Ruge  was  one  of  its  principal 
leaders. — Translator. 

s  Frederick  Barbarossa  was  Emperor  of  Germany  from  1152 
to  1189.  His  reign  was  marked  by  brilliancy,  power  and  iron- 
handed  ruling.  His  strong  personality  left  a  lasting  impres¬ 
sion  upon  the  mind  of  the  German  people,  so  that  he  became 
the  hero  of  a  number  of  legends.  He  represents,  therefore, 
to  the  German,  the  ideal  type  of  a  strong-handed  Emperor. — 
Translator. 


TO 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


Liberation,  I  discovered  a  real  and  strong  relation¬ 
ship  between  my  ethnological  studies  and  the  modern 
national  movement,  which  received  such  a  strong 
impetus  since  the  war.  I  will,  on  a  later  occasion, 
relate  to  you  some  of  the  conclusions  reached  through 
these  studies.  Let  it  suffice  for  the  present,  to  say 
that  these  studies  convinced  me  of  the  inevitable  ulti¬ 
mate  disappearance  of  any  particular  race  dominance 
and  the  necessary  regeneration  of  all  oppressed  peo¬ 
ples.  First  of  all,  it  was  my  own  Jewish  people  who, 
since  that  time,  began  to  interest  me  and  enchant  me 
more  and  more.  Images  of  my  unfortunate  brethren 
who  surrounded  me  in  my  youth  haunted  my  thoughts, 
and  the  long-suppressed  feelings  burst  forth  with 
fresh  vigor.  The  pain  and  agony  which,  during  the 
Damascus  affair,  was  only  a  transient  feeling,  became 
now  a  dominating  trait  of  my  character  and  a  lasting 
mood  of  my  soul.  No  more  did  I  seek  to  suppress 
the  voice  of  my  Jewish  consciousness,  but  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  I  carefully  followed  up  its  traces  and  was 
pleasantly  surprised  when  I  found,  in  my  old  manu¬ 
scripts,  a  passage  anticipating  my  present-day  Jew¬ 
ish  aspirations. 

The  following  passage  was  written  by  me  in  the 
year  1840,  during  the  time  of  the  above-mentioned 
Damascus  affair: 

“The  way  and  manner  in  which  the  persecution  of 
the  Jews  in  Europe,  and  even  in  enlightened  Germany, 
is  looked  upon,  must  necessarily  cause  a  new  point 
of  departure  in  Jewish  life.  This  tendency  demon¬ 
strates  quite  clearly  that  in  spite  of  the  degree  of 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM  71 

education  to  which  the  Occidental  Jews  have  attained, 
there  still  exists  a  barrier  between  them  and  the  sur¬ 
rounding  nations,  almost  as  formidable  as  in  the  days 
of  religious  fanaticism.  Those  of  our  brethren  who, 
for  purposes  of  obtaining  emancipation,  endeavor  to 
persuade  themselves,  as  well  as  others,  that  modern 
Jews  possess  no  trace  of  a  national  feeling,  have 
really  lost  their  heads.6  These  men  do  not  understand 
how  it  is  possible  that  such  a  stupid,  mediaeval  legend, 
which  was  only  too  well  known  to  our  forefathers  un¬ 
der  the  name  of  Mamserbilbul ,  should  be  given  crew 
dence,  even  for  a  moment,  in  Nineteenth  Century  Eu¬ 
rope.  To  our  educated  German  Jews,  the  feeling  of 
hatred  toward  the  Jews  displayed  by  the  Germans 
has  always  remained  an  unsolved  puzzle.  Was  not 
the  entire  effort  of  the  German  Jews,  since  the  days 
of  Mendelssohn,  directed  toward  becoming  wholly 
Germanized,  to  thinking  and  feeling  as  Germans? 
Have  they  not  striven  carefully  to  eradicate  every 

6  The  A  llgemeine  Zeitung  des  Judenthums,  which  is  other¬ 
wise  a  progressive  publication,  complained  bitterly  at  the  time. 
“Europe,”  says  this  worthy  publication,  in  one  of  its  issues, 
“has  spared  the  followers  of  the  religion  of  Israel  neither  pain, 
nor  tears,  nor  bitterness.”  Were  the  Jews  only  followers  of  a 
certain  religious  denomination,  like  the  others,  then  it  were 
really  inconceivable  that  Europe,  and  especially  Germany, 
where  the  Jews  have  participated  in  every  cultural  activity, 
“should  spare  the  followers  of  the  Israelitic  confession  neither 
pain,  nor  tears,  nor  bitterness.”  The  solution  of  the  problem, 
however,  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  Jews  are  something  more 
than  mere  “followers  of  a  religion,”  namely,  they  are  a  race 
brotherhood,  a  nation,  one  which,  unfortunately,  whose  existence 
is  denied  by  its  own  children  and  which  every  street  loafer 
considers  it  his  duty  to  despise  as  long  as  it  is  homeless. 


72 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


trace  of  their  ancient  nationality?  Have  they  not 
fought  in  the  “War  of  Liberation”?  Were  they  not 
Teutomaniacs  and  French  devourers?  Did  we  not 
chant  but  yesterday  with  Nicolas  Becker,  “They 
shall  not  possess  it,  the  free  German  Rhine”?  Did 
I  myself  not  commit  the  unpardonable  stupidity  of 
sending  a  musical  composition  of  this  “German  Mar¬ 
seillaise”  to  the  author  of  this  song? 

And  yet  I  had  to  feel,  in  a  personal  way,  the  same 
disappointment  that  German  Jewry  in  general  expe¬ 
rienced  after  it  had  given  repeated  demonstration  of 
its  patriotic  enthusiasm.  I  also  had  to  experience 
the  sad  fact  that  the  German  to  whom  I  sent  my 
manuscript,  glowing  with  patriotic  emotion,  not 
only  responded  to  it  in  any  icy  tone,  but  as  if  to 
fill  the  cup  of  bitterness  to  the  brim,  wrote  on  the 
other  side  of  his  letter,  in  a  disguised  script,  the 
words:  “You  are  a  Jew.”  I  forgot,  then,  that  the 
Germans,  after  the  War  of  Liberation,  not  only  dis¬ 
criminated  against  the  Jews,  their  erstwhile  comrades 
in  arms  against  the  French,  but  even  persecuted  them 
with  the  frequent  cries  of  Hep,  Hep.  I,  on  the  other 
hand,  took  Becker’s  Hep,  Hep,  as  a  personal  insult, 
and  accordingly  wrote  him  a  letter,  not  in  a  disguised 
script,  making  a  few  unpleasant  remarks,  which  this 
honest  German,  who  most  likely  felt  ashamed  of  his 
rudeness,  passed  over  in  silence.  To-day  I  could  have 
apologized  to  this  German  poet,  for,  as  I  see  clearly 
now,  it  was  by  no  means  intended  as  a  personal  in¬ 
sult.  It  is  impossible  for  any  man  to  be  at  the  same 
time  a  Teutomaniac  and  a  friend  of  the  Jews,  just 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


73 


as  it  is  impossible  to  love,  simultaneously,  the  German 
military  rule  and  German  democracy.  The  real  Teu- 
tomaniacs  of  the  Arndt  and  Jahn  type  will  always 
be  honest,  reactionary  conservatives.  The  Teuto- 
maniac,  in  his  love  of  the  Fatherland,  loves  not  the 
State  but  the  race  dominance.  How,  then,  can  he 
conceive  the  granting  of  equal  rights  to  other  races 
than  the  dominant  one,  when  equality  is  still  a  Utopia 
for  the  large  masses  of  Germany? 

The  sympathetic  Frenchman  assimilates  with  irre¬ 
sistible  attraction  every  foreign  race  element.  Even 
the  Jew  is  here  a  Frenchman.  Jefferson  said  long 
ago,  at  the  time  of  the  American  Revolution,  that 
every  man  has  two  fatherlands,  first  his  own  and  then 
France.  The  German,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  at 
all  anxious  to  assimilate  any  foreign  elements,  and 
would  be  perfectly  happy  if  he  could  possess  all  his 
fatherlands  and  dominions  for  himself.  He  lacks 
the  primary  condition  of  every  chemical  assimilative 
process,  namely,  warmth. 

As  long  as  the  Jew  submitted  in  silence  to  perse¬ 
cution  and  disgrace,  considering  it  as  a  punishment 
of  God,  all  the  time  confidently  hoping  for  the  future 
restoration  of  his  nation,  his  pride  was  not  impaired. 
His  only  care  was  to  enable  his  race  to  reach  that 
glorious  future  which  would  amply  recompense  it 
for  all  the  suffering  it  had  undergone  in  the  past, 
when  God  will  mete  out  punishment  to  the  persecutors 
and  enemies  of  Israel.  Our  enlightened  Jews,  however, 
possess  this  strong  belief  and  vigorous  hope  no  more. 
What  good  is  emancipation  to, them?  Of  what  avail 


74 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


is  it  that  here  and  there  a  Jew  rises  to  high  office, 
when  to  the  name  “Jew”  there  is  attached  a  stigma 
which  every  obscure  journalist,  every  stupid  fellow, 
can  safely  turn  to  account? 

As  long  as  the  Jew  endeavors  to  deny  his  nation¬ 
ality,  while  at  the  same  time  he  is  unable  to  deny  his 
own  individual  existence,  as  long  as  he  is  unwilling 
to  acknowledge  that  he  belongs  to  that  unfortunate 
and  persecuted  people,  his  false  position  must  daily 
become  more  intolerable.  Wherefore  the  illusion? 
The  European  nations  have  always  considered  the 
existence  of  the  Jews  in  their  midst  as  an  anomaly. 
We  shall  always  remain  strangers  among  the  nations. 
They  may  tolerate  us  and  even  grant  us  emancipation, 
but  they  will  never  respect  us  as  long  as  we  place 
the  principle  ubi  bene  ibi  patria  above  our  own  great 
national  memories.  Though  religious  fanaticism  may 
cease  to  operate  as  a  factor  in  the  hatred  against  the 
Jews  in  civilized  countries,  yet  in  spite  of  enlighten¬ 
ment  and  emancipation,  the  Jew  in  exile  who  denies 
his  nationality  will  never  earn  the  respect  of  the 
nations  among  whom  he  dwells.  He  may  become 
a  naturalized  citizen,  but  he  will  never  be  able  to 
convince  the  gentiles  of  his  total  separation  from  his 
own  nationality.  It  is  not  the  old- type,  pious  Jew, 
who  would  rather  suffer  than  deny  his  nationality, 
that  is  most  despised,  but  the  modern  Jew  who,  like 
the  German  outcasts  in  foreign  countries,  denies  his 
nationality,  while  the  hand  of  fate  presses  heavily 
upon  his  own  people.  The  beautiful  phrases  about 
humanity  and  enlightenment  which  he  employs  as  a 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


75 


cloak  to  hide  his  treason,  his  fear  of  being  identified 
with  his  unfortunate  brethren,  will  ultimately  not  pro¬ 
tect  him  from  the  judgment  of  public  opinion.  In 
vain  does  the  enlightened  Jew  hide  behind  his  geo¬ 
graphical  and  philosophical  alibi.  It  is  of  no  avail. 
Mask  yourself  a  thousand  times  over,  change  your 
name,  religion  and  character,  travel  throughout  the 
world  incognito,  so  that  people  may  not  recognize  the 
Jew  in  you ;  yet  every  insult  to  the  Jewish  name  will 
strike  you,  even  more  than  the  pious  man  who  is 
permeated  with  the  spirit  of  Jewish  solidarity  and 
who  fights  for  the  honor  of  the  Jewish  name. 

Such,  my  friend,  were  my  thoughts  then,  when  I 
was  actively  engaged  on  behalf  of  the  European  Pro¬ 
letariat.  My  Messianic  belief  was,  at  that  time,  the 
same  that  I  profess  at  present,  namely,  the  belief  in 
the  regeneration  of  the  historical  civilized  nations, 
which  will  be  accomplished  only  by  raising  the  op¬ 
pressed  nations  to  the  level  of  the  mighty  and  domi¬ 
nant  ones.  Now,  as  at  the  time  I  wrote  my  earlier 
works,  I  still  believe  that  Christianity  was  a  step  for¬ 
ward  on  the  road  toward  the  goal  of  humanity,  which 
the  Jewish  prophets  termed  the  Messianic  age.  To- 
day,  as  ever,  I  still  believe  that  the  present  great 
epoch  in  universal  history  had  its  first  manifestation, 
at  least  in  the  history  of  the  human  spirit,  in  the 
teachings  of  Spinoza.  However,  I  never  believed,  nor 
have  I  ever  asserted,  that  Christianity  is  more  than 
a  mere  episode  in  the  sacred  history  of  humanity, 
nor  even  that  this  epoch  of  sacredness  closed  with 
Spinoza.  I  have  never  doubted  that  we  at  present 


76 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


sigh  and  strive  for  a  redemption  which  Christianity 
never  dreamed  of,  nor  could  ever  supply.  It  is  true 
that  Christianity  shed  a  certain  glow  during  the  dark 
ages  of  history,  after  the  sun  of  ancient  civilization 
had  set  forever  ;  but  its  light  only  revealed  the  graves 
of  the  nations  of  antiquity.  Christianity  is,  after  all, 
a  religion  of  death,  the  function  of  which  ceased  the 
moment  the  nations  reawakened  into  life.  The  history 
of  the  European  nations  for  the  last  three  hundred 
years  amply  illustrates  the  truth  of  this  dictum;  but 
I  will  restrict  myself  to  calling  your  attention  to  the 
events  transpiring  at  present  in  Italy.  On  the  ruins 
of  Christian  Rome  there  rises  the  regenerated  Italian 
people.  An  influence  similar  to  that  of  Christianity 
is  exerted  by  Islam  in  the  East.  Both  religions  teach 
resignation  and  submission,  and  Turkey  follows  the 
same  policy  in  regard  to  Palestine  that  Austria  ex¬ 
ercises  in  Italy.  Christianity  and  Islam  are  both  only 
inscriptions  on  the  tombstones  which  barbaric  op¬ 
pression  erected  upon  the  grave  of  weaker  peoples. 
But  the  soldiers  of  civilization,  the  French,  are  grad¬ 
ually  sweeping  away  the  dominance  of  the  barbarians  ; 
and  with  their  strong  Herculean  arms  will  roll  off 
the  tombstones  from  the  graves  of  the  supposedly 
dead  peoples  and  the  nations  will  reawaken  once  more. 

In  those  countries  which  form  a  dividing  line  be¬ 
tween  the  Occident  and  the  Orient,  namely,  Russia, 
Poland,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Turkey,  there  live  mill¬ 
ions  of  our  brethren  who  earnestly  believe  in  the  res¬ 
toration  of  the  Jewish  kingdom  and  pray  for  it  fer¬ 
vently  in  their  daily  services.  These  Jews  have  pre- 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


77 


served,  by  their  belief  in  Jewish  nationality,  the  very 
kernel  of  Judaism  in  a  more  faithful  manner  than 
have  our  Occidental  Jews.  The  latter  have  endeav¬ 
ored  to  revive  much  of  our  religion,  but  not  the  great 
hope  which  created  our  faith  and  preserved  it  through 
all  storms  of  time,  namely,  the  hope  of  the  restora¬ 
tion  of  Jewish  nationality.  To  those  millions  of  my 
brethren  I  turn  and  exclaim,  “Carry  thy  standard 
high,  oh  my  people!”  The  Jewish  nation  still  pre¬ 
serves  the  fruitful  seed  of  life,  which,  like  the  grains 
of  corn  found  in  the  graves  of  Egyptian  mummies, 
though  buried  for  thousands  of  years,  have  never  lost 
their  power  of  productivity.  The  moment  the  rigid 
form  in  which  it  is  enclosed  is  shattered,  the  seed, 
placed  in  the  fertile  soil  of  the  present  environment 
and  given  air  and  light,  will  strike  root  and  prosper. 

The  rigid  forms  of  orthodoxy,  the  existence  of 
which  was  justified  before  the  century  of  rebirth,  will 
naturally,  through  the  productive  power  of  the  na¬ 
tional  idea  and  the  historical  cult,  relax  and  become 
fertile.  It  is  only  with  the  national  rebirth  that  the 
religious  genius  of  the  Jews,  like  the  giant  of  legend 
touching  mother  earth,  will  be  endowed  with  new 
strength  and  again  be  reinspired  with  the  prophetic 
spirit.  No  aspirant  for  enlightenment,  not  even  a 
Mendelssohn,  has  so  far  succeeded  in  crushing  the 
hard  shell  with  which  Rabbinism  has  encrusted  Juda¬ 
ism  without,  at  the  same  time,  destroying  the  national 
ideal  in  its  innermost  essence. 


SIXTH  LETTER 


The  noble  representatives  of  the  German  spirit — 
Patriotic  Jews — The  historian,  Graetz — Mercier's 
Essai  sur  la  Litterature  Juive  —  Autumn  and 
Spring  equinoxes  of  universal  history  and  its 
storms — Sabbatai  Zevi — Chasidim — Natural  and 
historical  religion — The  Jewish  Mother — Victor 
Hugo — Bo  erne,  Baruch,  Itzig. 

You  think  my  judgment  in  regard  to  the  relation 
of  the  Germans  to  our  brethren,  as  well  as  of  the 
progressive  German  Jews  to  the  Jewish  people,  too 
severe  and  dogmatic.  You  say  that  there  are  many 
noble  spirits  among  the  Germans  who  have  banished 
from  their  hearts  every  trace  of  race  prejudice  and 
are  permeated  with  the  spirit  of  justice  and  human¬ 
ity.  And  as  for  the  progressive  Jews,  you  think  that 
many  of  them  have  always  displayed  a  fine  spirit  of 
self-sacrifice  when  the  honor  of  their  religion  or  the 
welfare  of  their  brethren  called  for  it ;  and  that  those 
noble  spirits  came  principally  from  the  ranks  of  those 
who  distinguished  themselves  in  the  field  of  science, 
or  commerce,  or  industry,  and  thus  acquired  high 
positions  in  society.  To  these  just  strictures  I  will¬ 
ingly  subscribe,  for  I  admit  that  my  judgment  was 
too  general  in  its  character,  and  it  can  only  be  justi¬ 
fied  by  the  fact  that  it  was  written  under  the  influ- 

78 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


79 


ence  of  the  Damascus  affair.  To-day  I  would  hesi¬ 
tate  very  much  before  subscribing  to  it.  It  cannot 
enter  my  mind,  at  present,  to  deny  the  Teutonic  race, 
and  especially  the  German  people,  whose  mental  power 
I  esteem  so  highly,  the  ability  to  rise,  by  means  of 
progress,  above  race  prejudice.  The  German  spirit 
has  other  representatives  than  patriotic  Romanticists 
and  philosophic  book-dealers.  A  nation  that  produced 
men  like  Lessing,  Herder,  Schiller,  Hegel,  Humboldt 
and  many  more  champions  of  humanity,  must  cer¬ 
tainly  possess  the  ability  to  rise  to  the  heights  of 
spirituality  and  idealism. 

It  occurs  to  me,  in  connection  with  what  was  said 
before,  to  relate  a  story,  which  will  demonstrate  the 
ability  of  the  German  spirit  to  overcome  race  preju¬ 
dice.  It  was  told  to  me  by  Ludwig  Wihl.  You  have 
certainly  heard  of  Hecker,  who  played  such  an  im¬ 
portant  role  in  the  political  affairs  of  Baden  in  the 
forties,  and  even  as  late  as  the  famous  revolutionary 
year,  1848.  A  pure  German,  of  noblest  birth,  he 
began  to  attract  attention  in  Baden  by  his  much- 
heralded  liberalism,  immediately  after  the  year  of  the 
Damascus  affair.  But  do  you  know  against  which 
of  the  hereditary  enemies”  this  knight  of  German 
liberalism  directed  his  attacks?  Against  the  French, 
you  will  say?  No,  this  hereditary  enemy  was  rather 
harmless  at  the  time,  and  under  the  leadership  of 
Guizot  and  Louis  Philippe.  Was  it  against  the  Rus¬ 
sians?  Not  against  them.  The  hereditary  enemy, 
in  the  attack  against  which  Hecker  won  his  spurs, 
was  none  other  than  the  terrible  and  mighty  people, 


80 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


the  Jews.  Hecker  published  a  series  of  anonymous 
articles  in  the  Frankfurter  Journal  against  the  eman¬ 
cipation  of  the  Jews.  A  few  years  afterward  it  was 
this  same  Hecker  who  addressed  a  memorial,  on  be¬ 
half  of  Baden,  to  the  Berlin  Landtag  of  the  Con¬ 
federacy,  favoring  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews. 
And  when  people  reproached  him  for  his  former  op¬ 
position  to  the  Jews,  he  openly  confessed,  that  for  a 
long  time  he  had  been  unable  to  overcome  his  an¬ 
tipathy  to  the  Jews,  but  that  finally  the  principle  of 
justice  and  humanity  had  triumphed  in  him. 

The  democrats  of  1848  undoubtedly  fully  demon¬ 
strated  their  superiority  over  the  demagogues  of  the 
“War  of  Liberation,”  the  Romantic  lads  of  the  Jahn 
and  Arndt  type,  whom  they  left  far  behind  on  the 
road  of  progress.  And  yet,  on  the  basis  of  my  long 
experience,  I  feel  inclined  to  assert  that  Germany  as 
a  whole,  in  spite  of  its  collective  intellectuality,  is  in 
its  practical  social  life  far  behind  the  rest  of  the 
civilized  nations  of  Europe.  The  race  war  must  first 
be  fought  out  and  definitely  settled  before  social  and 
humane  ideas  become  part  and  parcel  of  the  German 
people,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Romance  peoples 
which,  after  a  long  historical  process,  finally  defeated 
race  antagonism. 

Willing  as  I  am  to  correct  my  judgment  in  regard 
to  German  Anti-Semitism,  I  am  still  more  willing  to 
alter  my  former  opinion,  in  accordance  with  your 
strictures,  of  our  progressive  Occidental  Jews,  and 
especially  those  of  Germany.  Of  late  there  is  to  be 
observed  in  Judaism  a  wholesome  spirit  of  reaction 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


81 


against  the  once  dominating  tendency  of  cosmopoli¬ 
tan  philanthropy,  that  vague  form  of  humanity 
which,  as  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  aptly  remarked, 
professes  to  love  men  in  general,  so  as  not  to  be 
burdened  with  the  immediate  duties  of  benevolence  to 
the  individual.  Signs  of  endeavor  to  introduce  into 
Judaism  a  more  healthy  and  natural  spirit,  I  notice 
everywhere :  in  America,  where  new  Jewish  communi¬ 
ties  are  founded  and  synagogues  built  every  year ;  in 
France,  where  an  attempt  was  made  to  found  an 
Alliance  Israelite  Universelle ,  which  may  become  an 
important  factor  in  Jewish  life,  provided  it  be  ani¬ 
mated  by  a  thorough  Jewish  national  spirit;  in  the 
German  and  French  literatures,  where  writers  like 
Kompert,  Strauben,  Weill  and  Bernstein  have  por¬ 
trayed  Jewish  life  faithfully  and  beautifully,  and  with 
no  small  measure  of  success.  But  most  of  all  is  this 
tendency  to  regeneration  prominent  in  the  literature 
devoted  to  the  science  of  Judaism,  which,  since  the 
publication  of  the  epoch-making  History  of  the  Jews, 
by  Graetz,  has  developed  such  force  that  it  will  soon 
be  able  to  overcome  the  nebulous  Christianizing  spir¬ 
itualism  of  the  assimilators. 

Still  earlier,  Gabriel  Riesser,  one  of  our  most  pro¬ 
gressive  German  Jews,  had  the  courage  to  name  his 
magazine,  devoted  to  the  interests  of  our  political 
and  civil  rights,  The  Jew A  Dr.  Ludwig  Philipson, 
also,  did  not  hesitate  to  call  his  spiritual  child  by  the 
name  Israel.  Again,  among  the  lyric  poets,  we  have 
Ludwig  Wihl,  who  uses  his  muse  to  sing  of  the  great 
4  See  Note  IV  at  end  of  book. 


82 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


memories  of  our  immortal  nation.  It  is  certainly  a 
sign  of  the  times  that  Ludwig  Wihl’s  Westostliche 
Schwalben ,  which  for  the  last  fifteen  years  hardly 
made  any  impression  in  Germany,  was  recently  trans¬ 
lated  into  French,  with  an  introduction  which  at¬ 
tracted  the  attention  of  the  French  press  to  the 
Jewish  people.  Pierre  Mercier,  the  French  translator 
of  the  Scliwalben  in  his  Essai  sur  la  Litter  attire  Jtiive , 
an  essay  on  Jewish  Literature,  expresses  his  opinion 
of  this  literature  in  a  way  which  I  cannot  fully  en¬ 
dorse.  He  views  Judaism  in  the  same  way  that  Jesus 
did,  namely,  from  the  narrow  and  one-sided  point  of 
view  of  spiritualism.  Yet  his  conception  of  the  spirit 
that  dominates  the  Torah  is,  in  spite  of  its  defects, 
vastly  superior  in  its  depth  of  historical  understand¬ 
ing  and  broadness  of  sympathy  with  the  Jewish  ge¬ 
nius,  to  those  of  the  German  historians  who  carry 
their  Jew-hatred  even  to  the  Bible. 

More  interesting  is  his  judgment  of  modern  Jewish 
literature,  which  he  considers  an  antidote  against  the 
modern  decadent  romantic  literature.  But  he  errs 
when  he  thinks  that  the  wholesome  source  of  this 
modern  Jewish  literature  is  Jewish  spiritualization. 
Jewish  life  was  never  wholly  spiritualized.  Even  the 
Essenes,  who  flourished  among  the  Jews  at  the  time 
of  the  birth  of  Christianity  and  to  whom  Christianity 
owes  its  origin,  were  not  a  thoroughly  spiritualistic 
sect,  and  not  even  the  primitive  Christians  can  be 
considered  as  such.  When  the  Essenic  sect  finally 
did  become  spiritualized  through  Christianity,  it  sev¬ 
ered  its  relations  with  Judaism,  and  not  even  a  trace 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


83 


of  it  can  be  found.1  Almost  every  important  point 
of  departure  in  the  history  of  the  development  of  the 
great  historical  nations  was  accompanied  by  move¬ 
ments  within  that  nation  which  is  the  bearer  and 
creator  of  historical  religion.  The  passing  from 
antiquity  into  the  Middle  Ages,  this  autumn  equinox 
of  humanity,  was  heralded  by  great  and  stormy  dis¬ 
turbances  within  Judaism  which  gave  rise  to  Chris¬ 
tianity,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  those  sects  within 
the  pale  of  Judaism  itself,  on  the  other.  But  the 
sects  were  not  of  an  enduring  character;  as  soon  as 
the  crisis  passed,  they  disappeared  without  leaving 
any  traces  behind.  Also  to-day,  during  the  spring 
equinox  of  humanity,  will  the  glorious  future  to  which 
we  strive  be  heralded  by  movements  in  Judaism.  And 
although  the  world  has  not  taken  any  cognizance  of 
these  stirrings  in  Judaism  as  yet,  they  are  not  there¬ 
fore  of  less  value  than  those  that  took  place  at  the 
transition  period  from  antiquity  to  the  Middle  Ages. 
Already  at  the  beginning  of  the  modern  period,  a 
Messianic  movement,  such  as  never  occurred  since  the 
destruction  of  the  Jewish  State  at  the  time  of  Bar 
Kochba,  took  hold  of  Eastern  as  well  as  Occidental 
Jews,  a  movement  the  false  prophet  of  which  was 
Sabbatai  Zevi,  but  whose  true  prophet  was  Spinoza. 
Our  modern  Sadducees,  Pharisees  and  Essenes,  also — 

1  Cf.,  on  Jewish  sects,  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews,  Vol.  Ill, 
note  10,  German  edition,  and  Vol.  II  in  English.  Luzzato,  also 
expresses  himself  in  connection  with  his  remarks  on  Essenian- 
ism,  decidedly  against  spiritualization  and  asceticism  as  being 
antagonistic  to  the  spirit  of  Judaism.  See  his  Commentary 
on  Deut.  vi,  5. 


84 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


I  mean  the  reformers,  the  rabbinists  and  the  Chasi¬ 
dim  2 — will  disappear  from  Jewish  history  after  the 
crisis  has  passed,  the  last  crisis  in  universal  history, 
when  all  the  nations,  and  with  them  the  Jewish  people, 
will  have  awakened  to  a  new  life.  Judaism  does  not 
allow  either  spiritualistic  or  materialistic  sects  to  ex¬ 
ist  in  its  midst.  Jewish  life,  like  its  divine  ideal  and 
goal,  is  undivided,  and  it  is  this  Monism  of  Jewish 
life  which  acts  as  an  antidote  against  modern  mate¬ 
rialism,  which  is  only  the  reverse  side  of  Christian 
spiritualism.  I  do  not  speak  here  of  philosophical 
systems  or  of  religious  dogmas,  or  of  life  concep¬ 
tions,  but  of  life  itself.  Life  is  a  product  of  the 
mental  activity  of  the  race,  which  forms  its  social 
institutions  according  to  its  inborn  instincts  and  typ¬ 
ical  inclinations.  Out  of  this  primitive  life-forming 
source  springs  later  the  life-view  of  a  race,  which  in 
its  turn  influences  life  or  rather  modifies  it,  but  is 
never  able  to  alter  essentially  the  primal  type  which 
continually  reappears  and  takes  the  ascendency.3 

It  was  the  German  race  that  endowed  the  Christian 
world  with  the  double  aspect  of  spiritualism  and  ma¬ 
terialism.  The  author  of  the  Essai  sur  la  Litter ature 
Juive  is  right  when  he  says  that  we  are  exceedingly 
generous  in  giving  the  entire  credit  for  the  modern 
love  mania  to  Christianity.  It  is  rather  due  to  the 
mediaeval  feeling  of  chivalry.  The  circumstances 
which  produced  this  romantic  sentimentality  arose, 
not  from  the  influence  of  Christianity  alone,  but  from 

2  See  Note  V  at  end  of  book. 

s  Cf.  Epilogue. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


85 


the  combination  of  Christianity  with  old  Germanic 
traditions.  Without  the  contribution  of  the  race 
genius  of  the  Northern  peoples,  Christianity  would 
have  never  occupied  that  position  in  universal  his¬ 
tory  which  it  has  occupied  for  centuries.  Had  it  not 
been  for  those  brave  adventurers,  the  Teutonic 
knights  of  the  Middle  Ages,  whose  personal  life  os¬ 
cillated  between  the  two  opposite  poles  of  gross  sen¬ 
sualism  and  the  most  abstract  mysticism,  Christian 
dualism  would  never  have  succeeded  in  impressing 
modern  life  so  thoroughly  and  deeply.  Thus  it  is  not 
theory  that  forms  life,  but  race;  and  likewise,  it  is 
not  doctrine  that  made  the  Biblical-patriarchal  life, 
which  is  the  source  of  the  Jewish  cult,  but  it  is  the 
patriarchal  life  of  the  Jewish  ancestors  that  is  the 
creative  basis  of  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  which  is 
nothing  else  but  a  national  historical  cult  developed 
out  of  family  traditions. 

Before  the  appearance  of  the  Germanic  races,  there 
were  only  two  forms  of  religion,  the  natural  and  the 
historical.  The  first  found  its  typical  expression  in 
Greece,  the  second  in  Judaea.  Just  as  the  Greek  cult 
had  brought  to  light  the  perfection  and  charm  of 
Nature,  so  Judaism  revealed  to  us  the  force  of  the 
divine  law  in  history.  With  the  entrance  of  the  Ger¬ 
manic  race,  both  natural  and  historical  religion  lost 
their  hold  over  the  human  mind  and  their  influence 
was  replaced  by  an  apotheosis  of  the  individual. 
Christianity  found  among  the  Northern  races  a  natu¬ 
ral  inclination  for  that  which  in  Christianity  itself 
was  only  a  result  of  the  decay  of  the  ancient  nation- 


86 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


alities,  namely,  that  view  of  life  which  sees  neither  in 
Nature  nor  in  history  the  unified  divine  life,  but  only 
the  isolated  existence  of  the  individual.4 

As  long  as  the  Germanic  race  dominates  Europe, 
there  can  be  no  development  of  national  life.  The 
“religion  of  love,”  separated  from  natural  and  his¬ 
torical  life,  had  only  the  salvation  of  the  individual 
soul  in  view.  The  apotheosis  of  the  individual  ter¬ 
minated  finally  in  a  sentimental,  feminine  cult,  which 
even  to  the  present  day  possesses  great  attraction 
for  our  romantic  Jews  and  inspires  in  them  a  sym¬ 
pathy  for  Christianity. 

“Love,”  says  Mercier,  “was  glorified  and  extolled, 
in  all  forms,  as  the  noblest  aim  in  life.  The  virtue 
of  women,  and  even  their  vice,  assumed  an  undue  and 
all  too  important  place  in  life,  so  that  woman  herself 
came  to  believe  that  the  fate  of  the  world  depends 
upon  her  fidelity  or  infidelity.  She  therefore  shared 
the  fate  of  all  those  whom  fortune  has  fondled  too 
excessively,  namely,  through  undue  flattery  she  be¬ 
came  corrupted.  And  so  it  happened  that  love  ab¬ 
sorbed  all  social  forces,  all  family  tradition,  and 
finally  dissolved  itself  into  sentimentality. 

The  Jews  alone  had  the  good  sense  to  subordinate 
sexual  to  maternal  love.  Alexander  Weill  puts  the 
following  words  in  the  mouth  of  a  Jewish  mother: 
“Should  a  true  Jewish  mother  care  for  love?  Love 
is  a  wicked  form  of  idolatry.  A  Jewess  must  love 
only  her  God,  her  parents  and  her  children.  .  .  .” 
The  little  old  grandmother  in  Kompert’s  story  says : 

4  See  Note  VI  at  end  of  book. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


87 


“God  cannot  be  present  everywhere  at  the  same  time ; 
He  therefore  created  the  mother  .  .  .”  Maternal 
love  is  represented  in  the  Jewish  novel  as  the  basis 
of  family  life,  as  its  passion  and  mystery.  It  is  the  . 
same  type  of  the  Jewish  mother  which  is  repeated  in 
all  Jewish  novels.  There  rises  before  me  the  picture 
of  the  Jewish  mother,  her  face  serene  but  pale,  a 
melancholy  smile  plays  around  her  lips  and  her  deep, 
penetrating  eye  seems  to  gaze  toward  the  distant 
future.” 

When  you  read  these  words  of  Mercier,  you  will 
certainly  be  reminded  of  your  own  mother,  to  whom 
this  description  aptly  applies.  There  arose  before 
me,  also,  on  reading  this  description  of  the  Jewish 
mother,  the  image  of  my  own  mother,  whose  features 
I  still  remember.  I  lost  her  in  my  youth  at  the  age 
of  fourteen,  but  till  recently  she  appeared  to  me 
almost  every  night  in  my  dreams,  and  I  remember  her 
words,  as  if  they  were  uttered  but  yesterday,  which 
she  spoke  to  me  when  she  visited  me  in  Bonn.  We 
were  already  in  bed  and  had  just  finished  the  evening 
prayer.  Then,  speaking  in  an  animated  voice,  she 
began :  “Listen,  my  child,  you  must  study  diligently. 
Mohrich  5  was  one  of  my  ancestors,  and  you  are  for¬ 
tunate  that  you  are  studying  under  your  grandfather. 

It  is  written  that  ‘when  grandfather  and  grandchild 
study  the  Torah  together,  the  study  of  the  divine  Law 
will  never  more  forsake  the  family,  but  will  be  handed 

5  M’H’R’CH,  the  initials  of  one  of  the  later  rabbinical  writers 
who  fled  from  Poland  into  Germany  so  as  to  save  his  wife  from 
the  forced  attentions  of  a  Polish  nobleman. — Translator. 


88 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


down  from  generation  to  generation.’  ”  6  The  words 
of  my  mother  must  have  impressed  me  deeply,  for  I 
still  remember  them  distinctly,  although  I  have  never 
since  heard  nor  read  about  the  legend  in  regard  to 
grandfather  and  grandchild. 

Thus  the  thought  of  his  children  constitutes  the 
central  point  around  which  the  life  and  love  of  the 
Jew  moves.  Love  is  too  strong  an  emotion  in  the 
Jewish  heart,  too  vast,  to  spend  itself  in  sexual  at¬ 
traction  and  not  embrace  in  its  depth  the  generations 
of  the  future.  And  because  of  the  fact  that  the  eye 
of  Jewish  love  is  turned  toward  the  future,  the  Jewish 
people  has  produced  so  many  holy  seers.  A  childless 
union  is  nowhere  so  much  deplored  as  among  the 
Jews.  According  to  the  rabbis,  a  childless  man  is 
like  unto  the  dead.  Only  the  Jews  could  heartily 
join  the  great  French  poet,  Victor  Hugo,  in  his 
prayer : 

Preserve  my  loved  ones,  Lord,  I  pray, 

My  kith  and  kin, — my  enemies  spare. 

That  never  in  the  evil  day 

Our  summers  may  of  flowers  be  bare. 

Our  cages  lacking  trilling  key, 

Our  honeycombs  devoid  of  bee, 

Or  childless  house  to  ever  see. 

I  close  with  the  above  verses  cited  by  Mercier,  a 
subject  which  we  discussed  at  some  length,7  but  in 

e  The  words  of  my  mother  have  their  origin  in  a  Talmudic 
saying  (Baba  Metziah,  85a)  which  utilizes  the  words  of  the 
verse,  Ecclesiastes  iv,  12:  “And  a  threefold  cord  cannot  be 
quickly  broken.” 

*  Hess  refers  to  the  translation  of  the  “Schwalben”  poems 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


89 


the  interests  of  the  national  regeneration  of  our  peo¬ 
ple,  it  must  be  constantly  emphasized.  If  it  is  grati¬ 
fying  see  that  inspired  poets  and  writers  champion 
the  cause  of  our  nationality,  it  is  still  more  fortunate 
that  the  loyalty  to  a  people,  with  whose  help  the 
oppressed  nation  will  reawaken,  was  not  unknown 
among  the  Jews.  What  would  this  people,  I  mean 
the  French,  think  of  us,  when  during  the  springtime 
of  nations,  the  daybreak  of  the  French  Revolution, 
not  a  sound  of  loyalty  and  sympathy  was  heard  in 
the  midst  of  our  nation?  But  thanks  to  the  French 
translator  of  the  Schwalben,  the  stain  was  removed 
from  our  name.  Although  neither  Wihl  nor  the  other 
Jewish  writers  and  poets  have  expressed  themselves 
for  our  own  political  regeneration,  they  have,  at  least, 
shown  to  the  world  that  progressive  Judaism  also 
cherishes  patriotic  memories,  and  that  through  some 
stimulus  this  poetic  and  ideal  patriotism  may  be  con¬ 
verted  into  a  strong  and  mighty  force  of  action. 
And,  therefore,  I  do  not  doubt,  that  from  now  on, 
progressive  Jews  will  labor  for  the  political  regener¬ 
ation  of  our  people  with  the  same  energy  that  other 
Jews,  in  other  times,  have  labored  for  the  emanci¬ 
pation  of  the  Jews  in  the  lands  of  exile.  The  spring¬ 
time  of  nations  which  is  about  to  merge  into  the  fruit¬ 
ripening  Summer,  will  not  pass  without  leaving  a 
lasting  impression  upon  our  Occidental  brethren. 
Among  the  Jews,  also,  Spring  will  quietly  fructify 

by  Wihl  which  he  discussed  at  length  and  which  seem  to  ex¬ 
press  a  certain  amount  of  enthusiasm  for  the  French  people.— 
Translator. 


90 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


the  buds,  and  the  bloom  of  a  new  life  will  suddenly 
surprise  every  beholder.  The  young  Jewish  genera¬ 
tion,  sensitive  to  every  high  and  noble  ideal,  will 
enthusiastically  join  the  Jewish  national  movement; 
and  once  the  young  branch  turns  its  growing  force  in 
that  direction,  even  the  barren  trunk  will  soon  be 
covered  with  leaves  and  flowers  that  will  be  an  orna¬ 
ment  to  Israel. 

Till  now,  however,  beloved  friend,  the  barren  wood 
preponderates  in  Occidental  Judaism.  Most  of  the 
German  Jews,  as  soon  as  they  come  in  contact  with 
European  civilization,  begin  to  feel  ashamed  of  their 
religion  and  descent.  The  Germans  have  so  fre¬ 
quently  and  thoroughly  demonstrated  to  us  that  our 
nationality  is  an  obstacle  to  our  “inner”  emancipa¬ 
tion,  that  we  have  finally  come  to  believe  it  ourselves 
and,  giving  up  our  Jewish  culture  and  denying  our 
race,  have  made  every  effort  to  be  deserving  of  the 
“blond”  Germanism.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  excellent 
mathematicians  among  them,  our  Jewish  Teutoma- 
niacs,  who  bartered  away  their  Judaism  for  State 
positions,  grossly  miscalculated  their  chances.  It  did 
not  avail  Meyerbeer  that  he  painstakingly  avoided 
the  use  of  a  Jewish  theme  as  the  subject  of  any  of 
his  operas;  he  did  not  escape,  on  that  account,  the 
hatred  of  the  Germans.  The  old  honest  Augsburger 
Allgemeine  Zeitung  seldom  refrained,  while  mention¬ 
ing  his  name,  from  remarking  parenthetically,  “Jacob 
Meyer  Lippman  Beer.”  The  German  patriot  Boerne, 
likewise,  did  not  gain  much  by  changing  his  family 
name,  Baruch,  into  that  of  Boerne.  He  admits  it 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


91 


himself.  “Whenever  mj  enemies  founder  upon  the 
rock  of  Borne,”  he  writes,  “they  throw  out,  as  an 
anchor  of  safety,  the  name  Baruch.”  I  have  ex¬ 
perienced  it  personally,  not  only  with  opponents,  but 
even  with  my  own  party  members.  In  personal  con¬ 
troversy  they  always  make  use  of  the  “Hep”  weapon, 
and  in  Germany  it  is  always  effective.  I  have  made 
it  easy  for  them  to  wield  their  weapon  by  adopting 
my  Old  Testament  name,  Moses.  I  regret  exceed¬ 
ingly  that  my  name  is  not  Itzig. 


SEVENTH  LETTER 


The  Reform  trick  and  the  uncritical  reaction — -Luther 
and  Mendelssohn — The  rationalistic  double — The 
key  to  the  religion  of  the  future — The  three  epochs 
in  the  development  of  the  Jewish  spirit — Restora¬ 
tion  of  the  Jewish  State. 

The  question  you  asked  me,  the  answer  to 
which  constitutes  the  most  difficult  problem  of  Nine¬ 
teenth  Century  Jewry,  shows  me  that  you  have  finally 
begun  to  interest  yourself  in  Jewish  affairs.  You 
have,  then,  nothing  against  the  attempt  to  raise  the 
Jews  once  more  to  their  former  place  in  universal 
history.  But  you  believe  that  this  aspiration  is 
merely  a  desire,  and  that  at  the  present  time,  world 
Jewry  consists  only  of  a  number  of  scattered  and 
dispersed  Jewish  families,  but  is  not  a  nation.  The 
religious  tie,  which  till  now  has  bound  the  scattered 
members  together  and  united  them  into  a  single  en¬ 
tity,  is  now  severed  through  the  participation  of  Jews 
in  the  general  cultural  life.  True,  the  reformers  have 
tried  to  mend  the  situation,  but  they  have  succeeded 
only  in  widening  the  breach.  And  with  barren  ortho¬ 
doxy  and  the  uncritical  reactionaries — those  who  still 
believe  that  the  Polish  fur  cap  is  a  law  given  orally 
to  Moses  on  Sinai  and  handed  down  by  the  sages — it 
is  useless  to  argue. 


92 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


93 


The  inevitable  result  of  this  situation  is,  you  think, 
indifference  and  severance  from  Judaism.  Nobody 
can  be  held  responsible  for  this  precarious  situation, 
for  it  is  not  the  arbitrariness  of  man,  but  the  force 
of  circumstances  that  has  dissolved  the  unity  of  or¬ 
thodox  Judaism.  Which  community,  you  ask,  which 
synagogue,  shall  one  who  is  still  attached  to  his  peo¬ 
ple,  join?  Again,  you  call  out  maliciously,  shall  we 
condemn  our  Jewish  scholars  for  their  attempt  to 
give  us,  in  lieu  of  the  “externally  shattered”  hard 
shell  of  Rabbinism,  the  light  of  Science? 

No,  my  dear  friend,  we  will  not  hold  anyone  re¬ 
sponsible  for  a  crisis,  though  a  dangerous  one,  but 
one  which  is,  after  all,  wholesome  and  necessary.  No 
human  power  could  have  avoided  it,  but  its  gravest 
symptoms  are  gradually  disappearing  and  we  have 
no  fear  of  its  repetition.  Judaism,  which  in  its  first 
contact  with  modern  civilization  was  threatened  with 
dissolution — we  say  it  without  fear  of  being  contra¬ 
dicted  by  history — has  successfully  withstood  this 
last  danger,  perhaps  the  greatest  that  ever  threatened 
its  existence.  Judaism,  at  present,  expects  no  antag¬ 
onism  either  from  science  or  from  life,  but  only  from 
those  who  pose  as  its  representatives  without  having 
the  right  to  do  so. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  minimize  the  untiring  labor 
of  the  Jewish  scholars  to  whom  our  present  Jewish 
generation  owes  its  education,  social  position,  and 
mental  and  moral  progress,  and  whom  alone  we  have 
to  thank  for  the  fact  that  in  the  midst  of  an  almost 
universal  social  disintegration  the  Jewish  family  still 


94 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


serves  as  a  model  of  moral  conduct.  These  scholars 
and  teachers  are  the  successors  of  the  ancient  rabbis, 
who  were  the  support  and  stay  of  Judaism  during 
the  long  two  thousand  year  exile,  and  who,  neverthe¬ 
less,  never  formed  themselves  into  a  caste. 

Yet  even  they,  like  our  poets,  are  so  much  en¬ 
grossed  by  the  general  current  of  life,  that  they 
hardly  devote  any  time  to  thought  about  our  national 
regeneration.  And  as  with  the  Jewish  scholars,  so 
is  it  with  the  young  generation ;  they  need  some  ex¬ 
ternal  stimulus  to  rouse  their  dormant  national  feel¬ 
ings,  so  that  they  will  proclaim  themselves  openly  as 
Jewish  patriots.  The  threatening  danger  to  Judaism 
comes  only  from  the  religious  reformers  who,  with 
their  newly-invented  ceremonies  and  empty  eloquence 
have  sucked  the  marrow  out  of  Judaism  and  left  only 
its  skeleton.  It  was  not  enough  for  them  to  aspire 
to  spread  and  develop  Jewish  study  on  scientific  prin¬ 
ciples,  nor  were  they  satisfied  with  a  regulated,  aes¬ 
thetic  form  of  our  ancient  Jewish  cult.  Their  re¬ 
ligious  reform  was  inopportunely  borrowed  from  a 
foreign  religious  denomination,  and  has  no  basis  or 
justification  either  in  the  conditions  of  the  modern 
world  or  in  the  essential  teachings  of  national  Ju¬ 
daism.  I  do  not  deny  the  justification  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Reformation  at  the  time  of  Luther,  nor  of  the 
Jewish  reform  movement  at  the  time  of  Mendelssohn. 
The  latter,  however,  was  more  of  an  aesthetic  than 
a  religious  or  scientific  reform.  Those  reformers 
keenly  appreciated  the  historical  basis  of  a  religion 
and  knew  well  that  the  old  basis  cannot  be  arbitrarily 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


95 


replaced  by  a  new  one.  Our  reformers,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  attempted  to  reform  the  basis  itself.  Their 
reforms  have  only  a  negative  purpose — if  they  have 
any  aim  at  all — to  firmly  establish  unbelief  in  the 
national  foundation  of  the  Jewish  religion.  No  won¬ 
der  that  these  reforms  only  fostered  indifference  to 
Judaism  and  conversions  to  Christianity.  Judaism, 
like  Christianity,  would  have  to  disappear  as  a  result 
of  the  general  state  of  enlightenment  and  progress, 
if  it  were  not  more  than  a  mere  dogmatic  religion, 
namely,  a  national  cult.  The  Jewish  reformers,  how¬ 
ever,  those  who  are  still  present  in  some  German 
communities,  and  maintain,  to  the  best  of  their  abil¬ 
ity,  the  theatrical  show  of  religious  reform,  know 
so  little  of  the  value  of  national  Judaism,  that  they 
are  at  great  pains  to  erase  carefully  from  their  creed 
and  worship  all  traces  of  Jewish  nationalism.  They 
fancy  that  a  recently  manufactured  prayer  or  hymn 
book,  wherein  a  philosophical  theism  is  put  into  rhyme 
and  accompanied  by  music,  is  more  elevating  and 
soul-stirring  than  the  fervent  Hebrew  prayers  which 
express  the  pain  and  sorrow  of  a  nation  at  the  loss 
of  its  fatherland.  They  forget  that  these  prayers, 
which  not  only  created,  but  preserved  for  millenni¬ 
ums,  the  unity  of  Jewish  worship,  are  even  to-day 
the  tie  which  binds  into  one  people  all  the  Jews  scat¬ 
tered  around  the  globe.1 

1  If  the  reformers  cannot  entirely  supplant  the  prayers  by 
hymns,  they  attempt,  at  least,  to  amend  them.  Dr.  Hirsch, 
Rabbi  of  Luxemburg,  changed  the  expression  “who  restorest 
thy  divine  presence  unto  Zion,”  in  the  Eighteen  Benedictions, 


96 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


The  efforts  of  our  German  Jewish  religious  reform¬ 
ers  tended  to  the  conversion  of  our  national  and 
humanitarian  Judaism  into  a  second  Christianity  cut 
after  a  rationalistic  pattern,  at  a  time  when  Chris¬ 
tianity  itself  was  already  in  a  state  of  disintegration. 
Christianity,  which  came  into  existence  on  the  graves 
of  the  ancient  nations,  had  to  withdraw  from  partici¬ 
pation  in  national  life.  It  therefore  must  continue 
to  suffer  from  internal  dissensions  arising  from  the 
constant  clash  of  irreconcilable  principles,  until  it  is 
finally  replaced  among  the  regenerated  nations  by  a 
new  historical  cult.  To  this  coming  cult,  Judaism 
alone  holds  the  key.  This  “religion  of  the  future” 
of  which  the  eighteenth  century  philosophers,  as  well 
as  their  recent  followers,  dreamed,  will  neither  be  an 
imitation  of  the  ancient  pagan  Nature  cult,  nor  a 
reflection  of  the  neo-Christian  or  the  neo- Judaism 
skeleton,  the  specter  of  which  haunts  the  minds  of 
our  religious  reformers.  Each  nation  will  have  to 
create  its  own  historical  cult;  each  people  must  be¬ 
come,  like  the  Jewish  people,  a  people  of  God. 

Judaism  is  not  threatened,  like  Christianity,  with 
danger  from  the  nationalistic  and  humanistic  aspira¬ 
tions  of  our  time,  for  in  reality,  these  sentiments 

to  “whom  alone  we  serve  in  reverence.”  Some  reformers  are 
satisfied  to  omit  from  the  Prayer  Book  the  beautiful  hymn 
Yigdal,  for  the  reason  that  the  belief  in  the  Messianic  age  is 
poetically  expressed  in  this  song.  It  seems  that  the  reformers 
think  that  the  Messianic  belief,  which  is  the  soul  of  Judaism, 
found  its  expression  only  in  these  few  prayers  and  poems,  and 
they  cannot  conceive  that  it  is  the  underlying  basis  of  the 
whole  Jewish  Cult. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


97 


belong  to  the  very  essence  of  Judaism.  It  is  a  very 
prevalent  error,  most  likely  borrowed  from  Chris¬ 
tianity,  that  an  entire  view  of  life  can  be  compressed 
into  a  single  dogma.  I  do  not  agree  with  Men¬ 
delssohn  that  Judaism  has  no  dogmas.  I  claim  that 
the  divine  teaching  of  Judaism  was  never,  at  any 
time,  completed  and  finished.  It  has  always  kept  on 
developing,  its  development  being  based  upon  the 
harmonizing  of  the  Jewish  genius  with  that  of  life 
and  humanity.  Development  of  the  knowledge  of 
God,  through  study  and  conscientious  investigation, 
is  not  only  not  forbidden  in  Judaism,  but  is  even 
considered  a  religious  duty.  This  is  the  reason  why 
Judaism  never  excluded  philosophical  thought  or  even 
condemned  it,  and  also  why  it  has  never  occurred  to 
any  good  Jew  to  “reform”  Judaism  according  to 
his  philosophical  conceptions.  Hence  there  were  no 
real  sects  in  Judaism.  Even  recently,  when  there 
was  no  lack  of  orthodox  and  heterodox  dogmatists 
in  Jewry,  there  arose  no  sects ;  for  the  dogmatic  basis 
of  Judaism  is  so  wide,  that  it  allows  free  play  to 
every  mental  speculation  and  creation.  Differences  of 
opinion  in  regard  to  metaphysical  conceptions  have 
always  obtained  among  the  Jews,  but  Judaism  has 
never  excluded  anyone.  The  apostates  severed  them¬ 
selves  from  the  bond  of  Jewry.  “And  not  even  them 
has  Judaism  forsaken,”  added  a  learned  rabbi,  in 
whose  presence  I  expressed  the  above-quoted  opinion. 

In  reality,  Judaism  as  a  nationality  has  a  natural 
basis  which  cannot  be  set  aside  by  mere  conversion 
to  another  faith,  as  is  the  case  in  other  religions. 


98 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


A  Jew  belongs  to  his  race  and  consequently  also  to 
Judaism,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  or  his  ancestors 
have  become  apostates.  It  may  appear  paradoxical, 
according  to  our  modern  religious  opinions,  but  in 
life,  at  least,  I  have  observed  this  view  to  be  true. 
The  converted  Jew  remains  a  Jew  no  matter  how 
much  he  objects  to  it.  At  present,  there  is  but  little 
difference  between  the  enlightened  and  the  converted 

Jew.  My  friend,  Armond  L - ,  whose  grandfather 

had  already  been  converted,  is  more  interested  in 
Jewish  affairs  than  many  a  circumcised  Jew,  and  he 
has  preserved  his  faith  in  Jewish  nationality  more 
faithfully  than  our  enlightened  rabbis. 

The  Jew  was  not  commanded  to  believe,  but  to 
search  after  the  knowledge  of  God.  Belief  is  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  conscience,  for  which  we  are  not  accountable 
to  anyone  but  ourselves.  It  is  impossible  to  give  it 
to  another.  It  is  very  easy,  indeed,  for  false  ration¬ 
alism,  just  as  for  blind  faith,  to  drawl  forth  its  creed. 
But  real  religion,  which  grows  out  of  the  innermost 
life  of  the  soul,  develops  with  the  individual.  Hu¬ 
manity  cannot  be  formulated  completely  and  em¬ 
braced  in  a  set  of  articles  of  creed.  On  the  wide, 
dogmatic  basis  of  Judaism,  many  and  various  views 
of  life  were  able  to  develop.  But  for  creative  Ju¬ 
daism  itself,  these  various  views  of  life  were  only 
passing  phases,  the  result  of  internal  and  external 
experiences ;  and  in  spite  of  this  multiplicity  of  forms 
of  development,  the  original  type  never  disappeared, 
but  was  constantly  reproduced  as  the  ripe  fruit  of 
the  tree  of  life. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


99 


The  noble  Jewish  spirits  and  the  great  thinkers  of 
Israel  understood  this  peculiar  character  of  histori¬ 
cal  Judaism.  They  did  see  in  every  modification  of 
the  view  of  life  a  new  religion,  and  never  persuaded 
themselves  that  they  could  reform  the  historical  basis 
of  our  religion.  Saadia  and  Maimonides,  Spinoza  and 
Mendelssohn  did  not  become  apostates,  in  spite  of 
their  progressive  spirit,  though  there  were  many 
fanatics  who  wanted  to  exclude  them  from  Judaism, 
or,  as  in  the  case  of  Spinoza,  had  him  excluded.  Our 
modern  rationalists  would  excommunicate  from  the 
Synagogue  Jews  who  declare  themselves  Spinozists, 
if  they  only  had  the  power. 

Dissatisfied  with  reform  and  repulsed  by  the  fanat¬ 
icism  of  the  orthodox  and  heterodox,  you  ask  me, 
with  which  religious  faction  should  one  affiliate  with 
his  family  in  these  days?  I  know  only  one  religious 
fellowship,  the  old  Synagogue,  which  is  fortunately 
still  in  existence  and  will,  I  hope,  exist  until  the 
national  regeneration  of  world  Jewry  is  accomplished. 
I  myself,  had  I  a  family,  would,  in  spite  of  my  dog¬ 
matic  heterodoxy,  not  only  join  an  orthodox  syna¬ 
gogue,  but  would  also  observe  in  my  house  all  feast 
and  fast  days,  so  as  to  keep  alive  in  my  heart  and  in 
the  heart  of  my  children,  the  traditions  of  my  people. 
If  I  had  influence  in  the  synagogue,  I  would  en¬ 
deavor  to  beautify  the  religious  worship.  Above  all, 

I  would  see  to  it  that  scholarly  Jewish  teachers  and 
preachers  should  assume  their  proper  positions  and 
be  reverently  respected.  I  would  then  turn  my  hand 
to  other  reforms,  if  you  care  to  call  them  such,  but  of 


100 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


a  different  kind  than  those  spiritless  and  empty  re¬ 
forms  favored  by  our  religious  reformers.  No  ancient 
custom  or  usage  should  be  changed,  no  Hebrew 
prayer  should  be  shortened  or  read  in  German  trans¬ 
lation.  And,  finally,  no  Sabbath  or  Festival  should 
be  abolished  or  be  postponed  to  the  Christian  day  of 
rest.  The  Hazan  and  singers  should  not  be  mere 
soulless  singing  machines.  The  prayers  and  hymns 
should  be  read  and  sung  by  pious  men  and  boys,  who 
are  not  only  versed  in  music,  but  also  in  religious  mat¬ 
ters.  The  house  of  prayer  is  not  a  theater  and  the 
cantor  and  singers,  as  well  as  the  preacher,  should  be 
something  more  than  mere  comedians.  What  does 
not  come  from  the  heart  can  never  affect  the  heart. 
Prayers,  songs  and  sermons,  which  treat  our  holy 
national  worship  as  an  antiquated  institution,  cannot 
exalt  the  soul;  they  always  arouse  in  me  an  uncon¬ 
querable  aversion.  In  a  word,  I  would  favor  every¬ 
thing  which  would  contribute  to  the  elevation  and 
education  of  the  congregation,  without,  at  the  same 
time,  undermining  our  ancient  worship.  And  in  my 
own  family  circle,  also,  I  would  carefully  see  that 
the  traditions  of  our  people  are  strictly  observed. 

If  people  were  to  follow  the  policy  outlined  above, 
peace  would  reign  in  Jewish  communities,  and  the 
religious  cravings  of  every  Jew,  no  matter  what  view 
of  life  he  holds,  would  be  better  satisfied  than  they 
are  with  the  reforms  that  every  intellectual  bungler 
fashions  after  his  own  individual  pattern.  These 
unsystematic  reforms  only  terminate  in  a  meaning¬ 
less  nihilism,  which  brings  in  its  train  desolation  of 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


101 


spirit  and  a  continual  estrangement  from  Judaism  on 
the  part  of  our  young  generation. 

We  really  confer  too  much  honor  upon  reform  when 
we  call  it  a  free,  intellectual  movement,  in  the  higher 
sense.  True,  in  a  negative  sense,  we  may  call  ration¬ 
alistic  criticism  a  free  tendency,  for  the  negation  of 
antiquated  principles  is  the  first  step  toward  free¬ 
dom.  But  positive  freedom  is  an  autonomous  devel¬ 
opment,  and  when  rationalistic  reform  denies  the  es¬ 
sence  of  Judaism,  namely,  its  nationalism,  it  cannot 
become  a  creative  factor,  and  consequently  cannot 
be  said  to  be  free  in  the  higher  sense.  Its  services  on 
behalf  of  negative  criticism  are  very  slight ;  and 
these,  as  you  rightly  remarked,  are  for  the  most 
part,  due  to  the  circumstances  and  conditions  of  a 
revolutionary  age  for  which  the  reformers  can  hardly 
be  held  responsible. 

Modern  social  life,  the  outcome  of  the  revolution, 
is  regenerating  in  its  nature;  it  does  not  occupy 
itself  solely  with  tearing  down  the  old,  but  is  mainly 
busy  with  creating  new  forms.  At  the  basis  of 
every  creation,  however,  there  is  something  of  the  old, 
for  ex  nihilo  nihil ,  out  of  nothing,  nothing  can  be 
created.  The  national-humanitarian  essence  of  the 
Jewish  historical  religion  is  the  germ  out  of  which 
future  social  creations  will  spring  forth.  As  long  as 
Jews  misconceive  the  essence  of  the  spirit  of  modern 
times,  which  was  originally  their  own  spirit,  they  will 
only  be  dragged  along  involuntarily  by  the  current 
of  modern  history,  but  will  not  participate  in  its 
making.  In  order  to  be  influenced  by  modern  life, 


102 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


there  was  no  necessity  for  rationalistic  reform.  Such 
countries  as  the  Rhine  provinces  and  France  clearly 
demonstrate  this.  In  these  countries  the  current  of 
modern  life  is  at  its  height,  yet  rationalistic,  religious 
reform  has  hardly  appeared  there.  It  is  in  these 
countries,  too,  that  religious  indifference  has  been 
brought  about  without  the  help  of  a  reform  move¬ 
ment.  Even  orthodox  Jewry  itself,  in  modern  Eu¬ 
rope,  is  gradually  being  carried  away  by  the  current, 
as  can  be  seen  by  the  fact  that  the  most  important 
function  of  Rabbinism,  namely,  its  jurisdiction,  has 
disappeared,  without  the  slightest  protest  on  the 
part  of  orthodoxy.2  Reform  has  only  gone  a  step 
further — to  raise  this  groundless  negation  to  the  rank 
of  a  principle,  or,  as  remarked  above,  has  sanctioned 
unbelief.  We  could  well  afford  not  to  begrudge  the 
reformers  their  laurels,  had  they  not  persuaded  them¬ 
selves  that  they  had  created  something  positive.  Imi¬ 
tating  Christian  reformers  of  an  earlier  age,  they 
set  up  the  Bible,  in  contradistinction  to  the  Talmud, 
as  the  positive  content  of  regenerated  Judaism,  and 
by  this  anachronism,  which  was  merely  an  imitation 
of  a  foreign  movement,  they  only  made  themselves 
ridiculous.  It  is,  in  reality,  a  narrower  point  of  view 
than  that  of  orthodox  Judaism,  to  declare  the  living, 

2  Hess  refers  to  the  rabbinical  courts  and  the  jurisdiction 
they  had  exercised  in  civil  cases  between  Jew  and  Jew.  The 
power  of  these  courts  in  Western  Jewish  communities  began 
to  decline  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  19th  Century,  and 
was  completely  abrogated  by  the  middle  of  the  century.  In 
Russia  and  other  parts  of  Eastern  Jewry,  the  Rabbinic  courts 
are  still  maintained  in  most  Jewish  communities. — Translator. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


103 


oral  tradition  to  be  a  “human  fiction,”  and  because 
it  was  written  down  at  a  later  time,  to  discard  it, 
while  admitting  the  law  of  the  Bible  to  be  divine. 
This  view  is  also  unhistorical.  Everything  tends  to 
show  that  until  the  Babylonian  exile,  or  even  still 
later,  until  the  period  of  the  Sopherim,  no  distinc¬ 
tion  was  made  between  the  written  and  the  oral  laws, 
as  is  the  case  to-day.  It  is  only  after  the  time  of 
the  Sopherim  that  this  distinction  was  made.  Until 
then,  tradition  was  neither  exclusively  written  nor 
exclusively  oral.  How  this  separation  was  effected 
has  not  yet  been  clearly  demonstrated  by  critical 
historians.  But  one  thing  is  firmly  established, 
namely,  that  the  spirit  which  at  the  time  of  the 
restoration  inspired  the  Sopherim  and  the  sages  of 
the  Great  Synagogue,  was  freer,  holier,  and  more 
patriotic,  than  the  spirit  which  inspired  Moses  and 
the  Prophets.  Every  liberation  from  a  politico- 
social  slavery  is  at  the  same  time  a  liberation  of  the 
spirit  and  serves  as  a  means  of  fertilizing  the  na¬ 
tional  genius. 

There  are  two  epochs  that  mark  the  development 
of  Jewish  law;  the  first,  after  the  liberation  from 
Egypt ;  the  second,  after  the  return  from  Babylonia. 
The  third  is  yet  to  come,  with  the  redemption  from 
the  third  exile.  The  significance  of  the  second  legis¬ 
lative  epoch  is  more  misunderstood  by  our  reformers 
(who  have  no  conception  of  the  creative  genius  of 
the  Jewish  nation),  than  by  our  rabbis,  who  place 
the  law-givers  of  this  period  even  higher  than  Moses, 
for  they  say :  “Ezra  would  have  deserved  that  the 


104 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


Torah  be  given  to  Israel  through  him,  had  not  Moses 
preceded  him.”  In  the  form  in  which  we  possess  it 
to-day,  the  Torah  was  handed  down  to  us  directly 
through  the  men  of  that  epoch.  These  same  men, 
living  at  the  same  time,  utilizing  the  same  traditions, 
and  in  the  same  spirit,  collected  both  the  written  and 
the  oral  law,  which  they  handed  down  to  later  genera¬ 
tions.  Nothing  entitles  the  written  law  to  a  holier 
origin  than  the  oral.  On  the  contrary,  the  free  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  law  by  oral  tradition,  from  the  time 
of  the  return  from  the  Babylonian  exile,  was  always 
considered  of  greater  importance  than  the  mere  cling¬ 
ing  to  the  written  law.  The  reason  for  this  is  quite 
evident.  The  national  legislative  genius  would  have 
been  extinguished,  had  the  sages  not  occupied  them¬ 
selves  with  the  living  development  of  the  law.  It 
was  to  this  occupation  that  Judaism  owed  its  na¬ 
tional  renaissance  after  the  Babylonian  exile,  as  well 
as  its  existence  in  the  diaspora.  It  was  through  this, 
that  the  great  heroes  who  fought  so  bravely  against 
the  Greeks  and  Romans,  rose  in  Israel.  And,  finally, 
it  is  to  this  oral  development  of  the  law  that  Judaism 
owes  its  existence  during  the  two  thousand  years  of 
exile;  and  to  it  the  Jewish  people  will  also  owe  its 
future  national  regeneration. 

The  rabbis  were  justified  in  their  long  struggle 
against  writing  down  the  oral  law.  Had  they  kept 
on  teaching  and  developing  the  law  orally  in  the 
schools,  Judaism  would  never  have  been  threatened 
with  the  loss  of  its  national  legislative  genius.  But 
they  were  compelled  to  reduce  the  law  to  writing,  in 


HOME  AND  JERUSALEM 


105 


order  to  avoid  a  still  greater  danger,  namely,  its 
being  entirely  forgotten,  especially  in  the  diaspora. 
To-day,  we  have  no  reason  to  fear  the  latter  danger. 
But  we  can  escape  the  former,  only  if  we  set  up  the 
spirit  of  criticism  against  barren  formalism  and  dis¬ 
solving  rationalism  and  revive  in  our  hearts  and 
souls  the  holy,  patriotic  spirit  of  our  prophets  and 
sages.  We  have  to  restudy  our  history,  which  has 
been  grossly  neglected  by  our  rationalists,  and  re¬ 
kindle  in  the  hearts  of  our  young  generation  the 
spirit  which  was  the  source  of  inspiration  to  our 
prophets  and  sages.  Then,  also,  will  we  draw  our 
inspiration  from  the  deep  well  of  Judaism;  then  will 
our  sages  and  wise  men  regain  the  authority  which 
they  forfeited  from  the  moment  when,  prompted  by 
other  motives  than  patriotism,  they  estranged  them¬ 
selves  from  Judaism  and  attempted  to  reform  the 
Jewish  law.  We  will  then  again  become  participa¬ 
tors  in  the  holy  spirit,  namely,  the  Jewish  genius, 
which  alone  has  the  right  to  develop  and  form  the 
Jewish  law  according  to  the  needs  of  the  people. 
And  then,  when  the  third  exile  will  finally  have  come 
to  an  end,  the  restoration  of  the  Jewish  State  will 
find  us  ready  for  it. 


EIGHTH  LETTER 


The  Neo-Hebraic  literature — Luzzato,  Rappoport, 
Frankel,  Krochmal ,  Sachs  and  Heine  on  Judah 
Halevi — Mendelssohn  and  the  Modernists — Schorr 
— Sectarians  without  sects — Salvador — Fusionists 
and  Freemasons — Hirsch — The  pretended  calling 
of  the  J ew  in  exile. 

You  are  certainly  in  error,  dear  friend,  when  you 
believe  that  only  our  progressive  Jews  have  acquired 
the  mastery  of  modern  culture  and  science  and  that 
orthodox  Jews  are  still  steeped  in  Egyptian  darkness, 
a  condition  which  is  as  detrimental  to  the  renaissance 
of  our  nation  as  is  modern  indifference.  Since  I 
have  devoted  myself  to  the  cause  of  my  people,  I  have, 
partly  through  personal  contact  and  partly  through 
their  writings,  come  to  know  many  orthodox  Jews 
of  the  old  as  well  as  of  the  younger  generation  and 
especially  of  the  latter,  who  do  not  fall  behind  the 
enlightened  Jews,  in  scientific  and  literary  education. 
These  scholars  have,  at  the  same  time,  a  more  thor¬ 
ough  understanding  and  conception  of  the  past  as 
well  as  of  the  future,  than  those  enlightened  minds 
who  lack  the  philosophic  and  historical  sense. 

Orthodox  Jewry  everywhere,  in  England,  France, 
Italy,  Germany,  Hungary,  Poland  and  Bohemia,  has 
its  literary  and  scientific  representatives  who  are  as 

106 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


107 


worthy  as  those  of  enlightened  Jewry.  Newspapers, 
magazines  and  even  philosophical  books,  permeated 
with  the  same  spirit  of  true  humanitarianism  as  the 
nation  to  which  they  belong,  are  published  by  our 
orthodox  brethren  in  the  sacred  tongue  of  their 
fathers.  Hebrew  literature,  thanks  to  the  works  of 
Luzzato,  Rappoport,  Frankel  and  Krochmal,  was 
reawakened  to  new  life,  and  already  a  number  of 
educated  modern  German  rabbis  conduct  their  cor¬ 
respondence  in  Hebrew.  Even  Holdheim  himself  did 
not  disdain  to  compose  his  swan  song  in  Hebrew ;  and 
Schorr,  a  more  violent  opponent  of  orthodoxy  than 
Holdheim,  publishes  his  periodical  Hachalutz  in 
Hebrew.  How  great  must  the  influence  exerted  by 
National  Judaism  be,  when  even  its  opponents  are 
forced  to  employ  its  own  medium  in  order  to  gain  a 
hearing. 

Read  the  work  of  Dr.  Sachs,  The  Religious  Poetry 
of  the  Spanish  Jews.  This  book,  written  in  the  finest 
style,  will  convince  you  that  educated  orthodox  Jews 
exert  a  far  more  wholesome  influence  on  Judaism  than 
the  reformers.  The  last  only  reflect,  on  the  ruins  of 
a  fossilized  orthodoxy,  a  cold,  borrowed  light  of  a 
by-gone  epoch,  without  possessing  either  the  light 
or  the  warmth  of  new  life  themselves.  You  perhaps 
know,  from  reading  Heine’s  Romancer o,  the  tragic 
end  of  this  great  patriot  and  sacred  singer,  Judah 
Halevi  who,  according  to  the  legend,  met  his  death 
at  the  ruins  of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem,  whither  he 
was  driven  by  his  irresistible  longing  to  visit  the  land 
of  his  fathers.  You  will  certainly  be  interested  to 


108  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

•t 

learn  a  few  things  about  the  life  and  character  of 
this  pious  bard  who  enriched  our  prayer  book  with 
his  beautiful  and  noble  poems.  “The  one,”  says  Dr. 
Sachs,  “who  cannot  theoretically  conceive  the  solu¬ 
tion  of  the  problem,  how  a  dispersed  people  may 
possess  a  nationality  and  a  homeless  nation  a  father- 
land,  will  find  in  the  personality  of  this  great  singer 
and  in  his  poetry,  a  practical  solution  to  that  prob¬ 
lem.”  I  must  here  remark  that  the  Judaeo-Spanish 
cultural  epoch  succeeded  in  solving  one  more  grave 
problem,  namely,  how  it  is  possible  to  be  a  good,  pa¬ 
triotic,  national  Jew,  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word, 
and  at  the  same  time  participate  in  the  cultural  and 
political  life  of  the  land  to  such  a  degree  that  the 
land  may  become  a  second  fatherland.  “The  longing 
for  the  hour  of  redemption,”  continues  Sachs,  “is  the 
dominant  note  in  the  Jewish  poetry  of  the  Spanish 
period.  With  many,  it  was  the  oppressive  conditions 
of  existence  that  called  forth  that  irrepressible  long¬ 
ing.  But  with  Halevi,  this  longing  is  a  pure,  loving 
desire,  which  possesses,  on  the  one  hand,  the  simplicity 
and  naivete  of  childhood  and,  on  the  other,  the  glow 
of  a  mighty  passion.  The  energy  and  vividness  with 
which  he  expresses  his  confidence  in  the  redemption 
of  his  people  is  only  the  more  gripping,  because  of 
the  fact  that  in  his  poetry  there  is  no  trace  of  the 
gloomy  present,  and  his  hope  of  the  future  does  not 
appear  to  be  the  result  of  a  daring  escape  from  the 
dark  environment  which  surrounds  him,  into  the  shin¬ 
ing  regions  of  phantasy.  He  is  confident  of  his  cause 
and  the  joy  of  his  belief  intoxicates  and  inspires  him.” 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM  109 

This  confidence  and  joy  of  belief  remind  me  vividly 
of  my  pious  grandfather.  Whenever  they  spoke  to 
him  of  plans  for  the  future,  he  always  objected  to 
making  such  plans,  remarking  that  we  Jews,  being  in 
exile,  have  no  right  to  plan  for  the  future,  as  the 
Messiah  may  suddenly  arrive.  My  grandfather  was 
neither  a  poet  nor  a  prophet;  he  was  only  a  plain 
business  man,  who  in  the  daytime  attended  to  his 
routine  work,  that  he  might  support  his  family  and 
in  the  night  devoted  himself  to  religious  and  scholarly 
studies.  After  the  dispersion,  study  became,  as  you 
can  find  again  in  Sachs,  an  essential  and  inseparable 
part  of  the  national  cult.  “The  house  of  study,”  he 
says,  “became  the  only  central  point  of  an  independ¬ 
ent,  free  life,  and  the  teachers  were  the  bearers  of  all 
ideals  which  were  typical  and  characteristic  of  na¬ 
tional  Judaism.”  The  Synagogue  was  rather  a  school- 
house  than  a  house  of  prayer.  Even  to  the  present 
day,  it  is  still  designated,  by  the  German  Jews,  as 
“Schul.”  The  typical  national  cult,  finding  its  ex¬ 
pression  in  the  study  and  in  the  minute  observance  of 
thousands  of  precepts  with  which  Judaism  fenced 
itgelf  around  in  order  to  preserve  its  integrity  in  dis¬ 
persion,  is  misconceived  by  our  enlightened  Jews. 
These  legal  and  religious  precepts  and  command¬ 
ments,  which  permeate  the  whole  life  of  the  Jew,  are 
condemned  and  mocked  at  by  blockheads,  who  have 
not  the  least  conception  of  the  patriotic  significance 
of  these  precepts  and  who  consider  themselves  pro¬ 
gressive  only  because  they  have  turned  their  back  on 
the  traditions  of  their  people.  It  is  the  same  ten- 


110 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


dency  which  came  to  the  front  immediately  after  the 
appearance  of  Mendelssohn  and  which  caused  Men¬ 
delssohn  himself  pain  and  aggravation.  During  the 
life  of  Mendelssohn,  there  emerged  those  “Modern 
Jews”  who  measure  the  degree  of  enlightenment  and 
education  one  possesses  by  the  amount  of  his  dis¬ 
regard  for  Jewish  customs,  and  who  finally  graduated 
into  State-service  by  presenting  a  conversion  certifi¬ 
cate  as  their  diploma.  They  relate  an  anecdote  which 
originated  during  that  first  epoch  of  Jewish  enlight¬ 
enment  and  which  is  characteristic  of  that  period. 
A  Jew  came  to  Mendelssohn  and  boasted  of  his  son’s 
philosophical  ability.  When  the  great  Berlin  phil¬ 
osopher  asked  the  father  wherein  the  philosophical 
acumen  of  his  son  consisted,  the  happy  man  replied, 
“Why  my  son  has  not  put  on  his  tephillm  for 
months.” 

You  know  that  the  use  of  phylacteries  on  the  fore¬ 
head  and  the  hand  originates  in  a  Mosaic  command. 
It  is  prescribed  in  the  Pentateuch,  that  in  order  to 
remember  the  divine  teaching,  we  should  inscribe  the 
words  of  God’s  law  on  the  doorposts  of  our  houses, 
and  symbolize  that  teaching  by  wearing  fringes  on 
our  garments,  binding  the  phylacteries  “as  a  sign 
upon  the  arm  and  as  frontlets  between  the  eyes.”  We 
find  pictures  of  garments  with  such  fringes  on  the 
old  Egyptian  monuments,  which  proves  that  this 
custom  is  a  very  ancient  one.  But  even  assuming 
with  Schorr  that  the  custom  of  putting  on  phy¬ 
lacteries  is  not  as  old  as  that  of  wearing  fringes  on 
the  garments,  the  results  of  Schorr’s  investigation 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM  111 

were  not  known  to  that  “enlightened”  son  and  his 
happy  father;  just  as  they  were  unknown  to  the 
Berlin  philosopher,  who  conscientiously  put  on  his 
tephillin  every  day  and  observed  all  the  Jewish  cus¬ 
toms.  The  enlightened  epikoros  could  by  no  means 
understand  Mendelssohn’s  conscientious  attachment 
to  traditional  Judaism.  His  relation  to  orthodox 
Judaism  was  not,  as  Mendelssohn  persuaded  himself, 
a  logical  result  of  his  rationalism,  but  was  a  natural 
expression  of  his  true  Jewish  spirit.  His  fine  sense 
of  religiosity  told  him,  that  when  a  man  turns  his 
back  on  tradition,  he  really  severs  himself  from  Ju¬ 
daism  itself  and  from  its  national  essence.  It  is  one 
thing  to  restore  Judaism,  through  unbiased  historical 
criticism,  to  its  origins ;  it  is  quite  another  to  discard 
it  and  belittle  it  through  indifference  and  imitation. 
You,  who  declare  the  teachings  and  ordinances  of  our 
sages  to  be  foolish  inventions,  pray  tell  us  what  would 
have  become  of  Judaism  and  the  Jews  if  they  had  not, 
through  the  institutions  of  the  Talmudic  sages, 
thrown  a  protecting  fence  around  their  religion,  so 
as  to  safeguard  it  for  the  coming  days?  Would  they 
have  continued  to  exist  for  eighteen  hundred  years 
and  have  resisted  the  influence  of  Christian  and  Mo¬ 
hammedan  civilization?  Would  they  not  long  ago 
have  disappeared  as  a  nation  from  the  face  of  the 
earth,  had  they  not,  after  they  were  driven  out  of 
their  own  land,  created  out  of  the  confines  of  their 
own  life,  a  sacred  territory  for  their  existence  and  a 
soil  on  which  they  could  thrive? 

To  those  who  lack  the  historical  sense,  the  exist- 


112 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


ence  of  one  nation  more  or  less  is  of  little  importance 
for  the  historical  development  of  humanity.  The 
great  organic  creation  of  Jewish  literature  which,  for 
the  last  three  thousand  years,  was  a  gradual  growth 
out  of  the  national  essence  of  Judaism,  seems  to  the 
spiritual  dwarfs,  the  rationalists,  to  be  no  more  than 
an  unnecessary  growth  which,  even  in  our  age  of  en¬ 
lightenment,  has  not  been  sufficiently  eradicated. 
These  pygmies,  who  are  living  in  an  age  of  giants,  do 
not  realize  that  their  very  existence  is  an  anachronism. 
As  a  precursor  of  the  French  Revolution,  in  the  cen¬ 
tury  of  The  Critique  of  Pure  Reason ,  the  existence 
of  rationalism  was  justified.  But  to-day,  when  the 
shackles  of  dogmatism  have  long  been  shaken  off,  we 
feel  more  the  need  of  creating  new  values,  and  for 
this  purpose  utilize  the  creations  of  all  ages,  than 
the  continuation  of  mere  negative  criticism  which  has, 
at  present,  but  little  value  for  us.  The  desire  to 
create  new  values  is  felt  even  by  those  who  are  unable 
to  discern  the  creative  ability  in  the  expressions  of 
the  Jewish  spirit,  and  are  thus  unable  to  utilize  the 
previous  creations  of  Judaism  as  a  basis.  But  in 
their  ignorance  and  mental  helplessness,  they  turned, 
in  their  desire  for  creation,  to  external,  artificial 
means,  which  do  not  spring  from  the  deep  well  of  our 
people’s  life. 

In  Jewry,  as  well  as  in  the  entire  modern  world, 
there  are  to  be  discovered  at  present,  two  main  ten¬ 
dencies  which,  though  diametrically  opposed  to  each 
other,  still  originate  from  the  same  source,  namely, 
the  need  of  objective  religious  norms  and  the  inability 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


113 

to  create  them.  One  tendency,  as  a  result  of  the 
above-mentioned  cause,  expresses  itself  on  the  part 
of  some  people  in  turning  back  to  the  old  uncritical 
belief  which,  however,  with  them,  lost  its  naive  and 
true  character.  In  their  despair,  which  arose  as  a 
result  of  the  dominant  nihilism  they  insist  on  a  con¬ 
scious  contradiction  to  all  reason.  This  desperate 
reaction,  which  defies  the  results  of  criticism  and 
spiritual  revolution,  is  known  in  the  Christian  world 
as  Supernaturalism.  In  the  Jewish  world,  it  is  rep¬ 
resented  by  Hirsch,  of  Frankfort  A/M,  and  other 
less  gifted  spirits,  as  well  as  by  a  host  of  ignoramuses 
and  hypocrites,  whose  association  with  it  really  les¬ 
sens  its  dignity.  As  an  antidote  against  this  re¬ 
action,  the  negative  reform  aspirations  may  possess 
some  justification,  even  though,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  reason,  they  did  not  succeed  in  creating  any 
stable  solid  life  norms.  The  characteristic  trait  of 
the  negative  spiritual  tendency,  which  labored  in  vain 
to  create  something  of  a  general  Jewish  value,  is  its 
extreme  individualism  and  incoherence.  The  modern 
religious  reformers  are  sectarians  without  sects. 
Each  of  our  Jewish  Protestants  has  his  own  code. 
Out  of  this  chaos  of  opinions  there  will  undoubtedly 
in  time  develop  a  new  Jewish  life.  But  this  new  life, 
the  beginnings  of  which  are  already  noticeable  in  the 
activities  of  the  younger  generation  of  Jewish  schol¬ 
ars,  will  bring  entirely  different  results  from  those 
hitherto  expected  in  the  liberal  circles  of  German 
Jewry. 

French  Jewry,  also,  within  which  there  is  not  as 


114 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


yet,  and  perhaps  there  never  will  be,  any  cleavage  on 
the  lines  of  reform  and  orthodoxy,  is  not  free  from 
the  traces  of  a  tendency  which  strives  after  a  fusion 
of  all  historical  cults  into  one,  and  which  endeavors 
to  reach  its  aim  by  removing  from  the  various  re¬ 
ligions  their  historical  and  characteristic  traits,  re¬ 
taining  only  their  common  elements.  You  have  cer¬ 
tainly  heard  of  Joseph  Salvador,  the  author  of  the 
work  entitled  History  of  the  Mosaic  Institutions  and 
of  the  Hebrew  People .  This  same  author  recently 
published  a  work  entitled  Paris ,  Rome  and  Jerusalemf 
in  which  he  clearly  shows  that  even  among  our  en¬ 
lightened  brethren,  there  are  dreamers  who  wish  for 
a  rebuilding  of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem.  But  he 
attaches  to  this  rebuilding  conditions  that  are  accept¬ 
able  neither  to  pious  nor  to  progressive  Christians 
and  Jews.  If  I  understand  the  author  correctly,  he 
expects  his  New  Jerusalem  to  become  the  world  cap¬ 
ital  of  the  fusionists.  Salvador,  furthermore,  seems 
to  cherish  the  curious  idea  that  the  Jews  ought  first 
to  turn  Christians,  so  that  they  may  be  the  better 
able  to  convert  the  Christians  afterward  to  Judaism. 
This  work  is,  in  reality,  not  as  new  as  Salvador 
thinks ;  it  began  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  It 
seems,  however,  that  the  Judaism  of  which  Salvador 
is  thinking  is  as  new  as  his  Christianity. 

More  reasonable  are  the  attempts  of  those  fusion¬ 
ists  who,  like  my  friend  Hirsch,  of  Luxemburg,  are 
utilizing  freemasonry  as  a  means  to  amalgamate  all 
the  historical  cults  into  one.  The  Luxemburg  Rabbi, 
the  antipode  of  his  namesake,  the  Frankfort  Rabbi 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


115 


Hirsch,  developed  the  idea  of  fusion  so  thoroughly  in 
the  excellent  lectures  which  he  delivered  at  the  Lux¬ 
emburg  Lodge,  and  later  published  under  the  title 
Humanity  as  a  Religion ,  that,  according  to  him,  the 
matter  may  be  considered  closed.  All  that  remains 
for  the  rabbis  to  do  is  to  close  up  their  reform  tem¬ 
ples  and  send  the  school  children  to  the  masonic  tem¬ 
ples.  In  truth,  the  logical  consequences  of  reform 
have  long  since  led  those  who  took  the  sermons  of  the 
reform  rabbis  seriously,  toward  making  such  a  step ; 
as  you,  being  a  resident  of  Frankfort,  well  know. 
In  vain  did  they  afterward  ornament  their  fusionist 
sermons  with  Talmudic  quotations.  It  was  too  late 
and  they  had  to  be  satisfied  to  preach  to  empty  pews. 

Jewish  rationalists,  who  have  as  little  reason  to 
remain  within  the  fold  of  Judaism  as  have  Christian 
rationalists  for  clinging  to  Christianity  are,  like  their 
Christian  friends,  very  energetic  in  discovering  new 
grounds  for  the  existence  of  a  religion  which,  accord¬ 
ing  to  them,  has  no  longer  any  reason  to  exist.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  them,  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews  was 
merely  a  preliminary  step  to  their  entering  upon  their 
great  mission.  What  great  things  are  the  Jews  in 
exile  to  accomplish  in  their  opinion?  First  of  all, 
they  are  to  represent  “pure”  theism,  in  contradis¬ 
tinction  to  Christianity.  In  the  next  place,  tolerant 
Judaism  is  to  teach  intolerant  Christianity  the  prin¬ 
ciples  of  humanitarianism.  Furthermore,  it  is  the 
function  of  exilic  Judaism  to  take  care  that  morality 
and  life,  which  in  the  Christian  world  are  severed 
from  each  other,  should  become  one.  And  lastly, 


116  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

the  Jews  must  also  act  as  industrial  and  commercial 
promoters  be  the  leaven  of  such  activities  among 
the  civilized  nations  in  whose  midst  they  live.  I  have 
even  heard  it  remarked  quite  seriously,  that  the  Indo- 
Germanic  race  must  improve  its  quality  by  mingling 
with  the  Jewish  race! 

But,  mark  you,  from  all  these  real  or  imaginary 
benefits  which  the  Jews  in  dispersion  confer  upon  the 
world,  none  will  be  diminished  even  after  the  restora¬ 
tion  of  the  Jewish  State.  For  just  as  at  the  time 
of  the  return  from  the  Babylonian  exile  not  all  the 
Jews  settled  in  Palestine,  but  the  majority  remained 
in  the  lands  of  exile,  where  there  had  been  Jewish 
settlements  since  the  dispersion  of  Israel  and  Judah, 
so  need  we  not  look  forward  to  a  larger  concentration 
of  Jews  at  the  future  restoration.  Besides,  it  seems 
to  me  that  those  benefits  which  the  Jews  in  exile 
confer  upon  the  world  are  exaggerated,  “for  the  sake 
of  the  cause.”  I  consider  it  an  anachronism  to  as¬ 
sign  to  the  Jews  those  missions  which  they  certainly 
performed  in  antiquity,  and  to  some  extent  also  in 
mediaeval  times,  but  which,  at  present,  no  longer  be¬ 
long  peculiarly  to  them.  As  to  affecting  the  unity 
of  life  and  theory,  it  is  only  possible  with  a  nation 
which  is  politically  organized;  such  a  nation  alone 
is  able  to  realize  it  practically  by  embodying  it  in 
its  institutions. 

Again,  what  section  of  world-Jewry  is  to  teach  the 
Christians  tolerance  and  humanity?  You  will  surely 
say  the  enlightened  Jews.  But  is  not  the  enlightened 
Christian  entitled  to  repeat  to  the  enlightened  Jew 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


117 


the  words  which  Lessing,  in  his  Nathan  the  Wise ,  puts 
into  the  mouth  of  the  liberal  Christian  in  his  answer 
to  the  liberal  Jew:  “What  makes  me  a  Christian  in 
your  eyes,  makes  you  a  Jew  in  mine.” 

Or,  on  the  other  hand,  should  the  enlightened  Jew 
say  to  the  orthodox  Christian,  “Your  beliefs  are  mere 
superstitions,  your  religion  only  fanaticism,”  may 
the  enlightened  Christian  not  turn  to  the  orthodox 
Jew  and  make  similar  remarks  in  defense  of  his  own 
religion?  Our  cultured  Jews  who  accuse  Christians 
of  possessing  a  persecution  mania,  reason  as  falla¬ 
ciously  as  does  Bethmann  Hollweg  when  he  charges 
the  Jews  with  the  same  trait.  History  can  neither 
be  explained  nor  changed  in  its  course  by  such  ex¬ 
planations. 

From  the  viewpoint  of  enlightenment,  I  see  as  little 
reason  for  the  continuation  of  the  existence  of  Ju¬ 
daism  as  for  Christianity.  It  is  better  for  the  Jew 
who  does  not  believe  in  the  national  regeneration  of 
his  people,  to  labor,  like  the  enlightened  Christian, 
for  the  dissolution  of  his  religion.  I  understand  how 
one  can  hold  such  an  opinion.  But  what  I  do  not 
understand  is,  how  it  is  possible  to  believe  simultane¬ 
ously  in  “enlightenment”  and  in  a  Jewish  Mission  in 
exile ;  in  other  words,  in  the  ultimate  dissolution  and 
in  the  continued  existence  of  Judaism  at  the  same 
time. 


NINTH  LETTER 

A  dilemma — The.  sacred  history  of  mankind— Our 
allies  The  unity  of  the  human  genus — Races  and 
folk  types  The  organism  of  mankind. 

You  confronted  me  with  the  dilemma,  that  we  must 
either  agree  with  the  Luxemburg  Hirsch,  that  the 
goal  and  essence  of  Judaism  is  humanitarianism,  in 
which  case  it  is  not  national  regeneration,  but  the 
realization  of  humanitarian  ideals  which  is  the  aim 
worth  striving  for;— and  Judaism,  like  every  re¬ 
ligious  or  political  society,  must  ultimately  become 
absorbed  and  disappear  in  the  larger  fellowship  of 
humanity;— or  we  must  agree  with  the  Frankfort 
Hirsch,  who  sees  in  Judaism  the  only  salvation;  in 
which  case,  we  disagree  with  the  modern  humanita¬ 
rian  aspirations  and,  like  orthodox  Christianity,  we 
need  make  little  appeal  to  public  opinion  of  the  cen¬ 
tury  ;  for  public  opinion  will  receive  such  an  appeal 
with  the  same  feeling  that  it  would  receive  a  Chinese 
Proclamation  or  a  Papal  Bull. 

I  believe,  dear  friend,  that  the  opinions  I  have  here¬ 
tofore  expressed  in  my  correspondence  with  you  have 
little  in  common  with  either  horn  of  the  dilemma. 
They  do  not  agree  with  the  conceptions  of  either 
extreme  faction,  but  belong  to  a  different  order  of 

118 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


119 


ideas.  I  believe  that  not  only  does  the  national  es¬ 
sence  of  Judaism  not  exclude  civilization  and  humani- 
tarianism,  but  that  the  latter  really  follow  from  it, 
as  necessarily  as  the  result  follows  from  the  cause. 
If,  in  spite  of  this,  I  emphasize  the  national  side  of 
Judaism,  which  is  the  root,  rather  than  the  humani¬ 
tarian  aspect,  which  is  the  bloom  and  flower,  it  is 
because  in  our  time  people  are  prone  to  decorate 
themselves  with  the  flowers  of  culture  rather  than 
cultivate  them  again  in  the  soil  on  which  they  grew. 
It  is  out  of  Judaism  that  our  humanitarian  view  of 
life  sprang.  There  is  not  a  phase  in  Christian  moral¬ 
ity,  nor  in  the  scholastic  philosophy  of  the  Middle 
Ages,1  nor  in  modern  philanthropy,  and,  if  we  add 

1  Munk,  in  his  Melanges  de  philosophic  juive  et  arabe,  pp. 
291-301,  has  already  shown  the  influence  of  Avicebron  on 
Scholastic  philosophy.  The  Mekor  Hayim  (Source  of  Life), 
by  Solomon  b.  Judah  Ibn  Gabirol  (Avicebron),  was  translated 
in  the  twelfth  century  by  a  Dominican  Monk  Gundisalvi,  with 
the  help  of  a  converted  Jew,  John  Avendeath,  into  Latin,  and 
since  that  time  it  has  played  an  important  role  in  the  struggle 
between  the  Thomists  and  Scotists.  Even  Giordano  Bruno 
consulted  the  Fons  Vitce  (Source  of  Life),  the  book  of  the 
Jewish  philosopher  Avicebron.  More  influential  than  the  neo- 
platonist,  Avicebron,  was  Maimonides,  whose  book  the  More 
Nebuchim  (Guide  of  the  Perplexed),  as  shown  by  Dr.  Joel, 
Professor  of  the  Breslau  Seminary,  was  greatly  utilized  by 
Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas.  According  to  Joel, 
the  influence  of  Maimonidian  philosophy  extended  even  to  Leib¬ 
nitz  who,  as  recently  shown  by  Foucher  de  Careil,  was  a  de¬ 
voted  student  and  admirer  of  the  More  Nebuchim.  “Even  in 
Kant’s  Religious  Philosophy,”  says  Dr.  Joel,  “we  sometimes  de¬ 
tect  an  echo  of  the  philosophy  of  Maimonides.”  (Cf.  Frankel’s 
Monatsschrift  fuer  Oeschichte  und  Wissenschaft  des  Juden- 
tums.  Jahrgang,  1860,  pp.  205-217.  Also  Graetz:  Oeschichte 
der  Juden,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  31-49  and  p.  377. 


120  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

the  latest  manifestation  of  Judaism,  Spinozism,  not 
even  in  modern  philosophy,  which  does  not  have  its 
roots  in  Judaism.  Until  the  French  Revolution,  the 
Jewish  people  was  the  only  people  in  the  world  which 
had,  simultaneously,  a  national  as  well  as  a  humani¬ 
tarian  religion.  It  is  through  Judaism  that  the  his¬ 
tory  of  humanity  became  a  sacred  history.  I  mean 
by  that,  that  process  of  unified  organic  development 
which  has  its  origin  in  the  love  of  the  family  and 
which  will  not  be  completed  until  the  whole  of  human¬ 
ity  becomes  one  family,  the  members  of  which  will 
be  united  by  the  holy  spirit,  the  creative  genius  of 
history,  as  strongly  as  the  organs  of  a  body  are 
united  by  the  creative  natural  forces.  As  long  as 
no  other  people  possessed  such  a  national,  humani¬ 
tarian  cult,  the  Jews  alone  were  the  people  of  God. 
Since  the  French  Revolution,  the  French,  as  well  as 
the  other  peoples  which  followed  them,  have  become 
our  noble  rivals  and  faithful  allies. 

With  the  final  victory  of  these  nations  over  Medie¬ 
val  reaction,  the  humanitarian  aspirations,  with  which 
I  am  greatly  in  sympathy,  so  long  as  they  do  not 
express  themselves  merely  in  hypocritical,  flowery 
words,  will  be  realized  and  bear  fruit.  Anti-national 
Humanitarianism  is  just  as  unfruitful  as  the  anti¬ 
humanitarian  Nationalism  of  Medieval  reaction.  In 
theoretical  anti-national  humanitarianism  I  can  only 
see,  mildly  speaking,  an  idealistic  dream,  but  not  a 
semblance  of  reality.  We  become  so  saturated  with 
spiritualistic  love  and  humanistic  chloroform  that  we 
ultimately  become  entirely  unconscious  of  the  pain 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


121 


and  misery  that  the  antagonism  which  still  exists 
between  the  various  members  of  the  great  human 
family  causes  in  real  life.  This  antagonism  will  not 
be  eradicated  by  enlightened  sermons,  but  only  by  a 
process  of  historical  development  based  on  laws  as 
unchangeable  as  the  laws  of  Nature.  Just  as  Nature 
does  not  produce  flowers  and  fruits  of  a  general 
character,  nor  general  plants  and  animals,  but  pro¬ 
duces  particular  plant  and  animal  types,  so  does  the 
creative  power  in  history  produce  only  folk  types. 
In  mankind,  the  plan  of  the  plant  and  animal  king¬ 
doms  finds  its  perfection;  but  humanity,  as  a  sepa¬ 
rate  life  sphere,  as  the  sphere  of  social  life,  is  still  in 
the  process  of  development.  We  find  in  the  history 
of  social  life  a  primal  differentiation  of  folk-types 
which  at  first,  plant-like,  existed  side  by  side  with 
each  other;  then,  animal-like,  fought  each  other  and 
destroyed  or  absorbed  one  another,  but  which  will 
finally,  in  order  to  become  absolutely  free,  live  not 
only  in  friendly  fashion  with  one  another,  but  live 
each  for  the  other ,  preserving,  at  the  same  time, 
their  particular  type  identity. 

The  laws  of  universal  history,  I  mean  the  history 
of  the  universe,  namely,  those  of  the  cosmic,  organic 
and  social  life,  are  as  yet  little  known.  We  have 
particular  sciences,  but  not  a  science  of  the  universe ; 
we  still  do  not  know  the  unity  of  all  life.  One  thing, 
however,  is  certain,  that  a  fusion  of  cults,  an  ideal 
to  which  so  many  aspire,  and  which  was  realized,  at 
least  in  part,  for  thousands  of  years  by  Catholic 
Rome,  will  as  little  establish  a  lasting  peace  in  hu- 


122 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


man  society  as  the  philanthropic  but  unscientific  be¬ 
lief  in  the  absolute  equality  of  men.  In  their  attempt 
to  base  the  granting  of  equal  rights  to  all  men  on 
the  primitive  uniformity  of  all  races  and  types,  the 
humanitarians  confound  the  organization  of  social 
life  on  the  basis  of  solidarity,  which  is  the  result  of 
a  long  and  painful  process  of  historical  development, 
with  a  ready-made,  inorganic  equality  and  uniform¬ 
ity,  which  becomes  rarer  and  rarer  the  farther  back 
we  go  in  history.  The  reconciliation  of  races  follows 
its  own  natural  laws,  which  we  can  neither  arbitrarily 
create  nor  change.  As  to  the  fusion  of  cults,  it  is 
really  a  past  stage  in  the  development  of  social  life. 
It  was  the  watchword  of  that  religion  which  owes  its 
existence  to  the  death  of  the  nations  of  antiquity, 
i.e.,  Christianity.  To-day  the  real  problem  is  how 
to  free  the  various  oppressed  races  and  folk-types 
and  allow  them  to  develop  in  their  own  way.  The 
dangerous  possibility  that  the  various  nationalities 
will  separate  themselves  entirely  from  each  other  or 
ignore  each  other,  is  to  be  feared  as  little  as  the 
danger  that  they  will  fight  among  themselves  and 
enslave  one  another. 

The  present-day  national  movement  not  only  does 
not  exclude  humanitarianism,  but  strongly  asserts 
it ;  for  this  movement  is  a  wholesome  reaction,  not 
against  humanism,  but  against  the  things  that  would 
encroach  upon  it  and  cause  its  degeneration,  against 
the  leveling  tendencies  of  modern  industry  and  civil¬ 
ization  which  threaten  to  deaden  every  original  or¬ 
ganic  life-force,  by  introducing  a  uniform  inorganic 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


123 


mechanism.  As  long  as  these  tendencies  were  directed 
against  the  antiquated  institutions  of  a  long-passed 
historical  period,  their  existence  was  justified.  Nor 
can  this  nationalistic  reaction  object  to  them,  insofar 
as  they  endeavor  to  establish  closer  relations  be¬ 
tween  the  various  nations  of  the  world.  But,  un¬ 
fortunately,  people  have  gone  so  far  in  life,  as  well 
as  in  science,  as  to  deny  the  typical  and  the  creative ; 
and  as  a  result  the  vapor  of  idealism,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  dust  of  atomism  on  the  other,  rest  like 
mildew  on  the  red  corn,  and  stifle  the  germinating 
life  in  the  bud.  It  is  against  these  encroachments  on 
the  most  sacred  principles  of  creative  life  that  the 
national  tendencies  of  our  time  react,  and  it  is  against 
these  destructive  forces  that  I  appeal  to  the  original 
national  power  of  Judaism. 

Like  the  general  universal  cosmic  life  which  finds 
its  termination  in  it,  and  the  individual  microcosmic 
life  in  which  all  the  buds  and  fruits  of  the  spirit 
finally  ripen,  Humanity  is  a  living  organism,  of  which 
races  and  peoples  are  the  members.  In  every  organ¬ 
ism  changes  are  continually  going  on.  Some,  quite 
prominent  in  the  embryonic  stage,  disappear  in  the 
later  development.  There  are  organs,  on  the  other 
hand,  hardly  noticeable  in  the  earlier  existence  of  the 
organism,  which  become  important  only  when  the 
organism  reaches  the  end  of  its  development. 

To  the  latter  class  of  members  of  organic  human¬ 
ity  (which  class  is  really  the  creative  one)  belongs  the 
Jewish  people.  This  people  was  hardly  noticeable 
in  the  ancient  world,  where  it  was  greatly  oppressed 


124  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

by  its  powerful,  conquering  neighbors.  Twice  it  came 
near  being  destroyed ;  namely,  in  the  Egyptian  and 
Rabylonian  captivities ;  and  twice  it  rose  to  new 
spiritual  life  and  fought  long  and  successfully  against 
the  mightiest  as  well  as  the  most  civilized  peoples 
of  antiquity  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans.  Finally, 
in  the  last  struggle  of  the  ancient  world,  it  was  this 
people  which  fertilized  the  genius  of  humanity  with 
its  own  spirit,  so  as  to  rejuvenate  itself,  along  with 
the  regeneration  of  humanity.  To-day,  when  the 
process  of  rejuvenation  of  the  historical  peoples  is 
ended  and  each  nation  has  its  special  function  in 
the  organism  of  humanity,  we  are  for  the  first  time 
beginning  to  conceive  the  special  significance  of  the 
various  organs  of  humanity. 

England,  with  its  industrial  organization,  repre¬ 
sents  the  nerve-force  of  humanity  which  directs  and 
regulates  the  alimentary  system  of  mankind ;  France, 
that  of  general  motion,  namely,  the  social;  Germany 
discharges  the  function  of  thinking;  and  America 
represents  the  general  regenerating  power  by  means 
of  which  all  elements  of  the  historical  peoples  will  be 
assimilated  into  one.  When  we  observe  that  every 
modern  people,  every  part  of  modern  society,  displays 
in  its  activity  as  an  organ  of  humanity  a  special  call- 
ing,  then  we  must  also  determine  the  importance  and 
function  of  the  only  ancient  people  which  still  exists 
to-day,  as  strong  and  vigorous  as  it  was  in  the  days 
of  old,  namely,  the  people  of  Israel. 

In  the  organism  of  humanity  there  are  no  two 
peoples  which  attract  and  repel  each  other  more  than 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


125 


the  Germans  and  the  Jews;  just  as  there  are  no  two 
mental  attitudes  which  are  simultaneously  akin  to 
each  other  and  still  diametrically  opposed,  as  the 
scientific-philosophical  and  the  religious-moral.  Re¬ 
ligion,  in  its  higher  form,  is  the  spiritual  tie  which 
binds  the  creature  to  the  Creator,  the  infinite  thread, 
the  end  of  which  returns  to  its  source,  the  bridge 
which  leads  from  one  creation  to  the  other,  from 
life  to  death,  and  from  death  back  to  life.  It  not 
only  brings  man  to  know  the  Absolute  more  intimate¬ 
ly,  but  it  inspires  and  sanctifies  his  whole  life  with 
the  divine  spirit.  In  religion,  as  in  love,  especially  in 
a  religion  like  Judaism,  which  is  neither  one-sidedly 
materialistic  nor  one-sidedly  spiritualistic,  body  and 
spirit  merge  into  one  another.  The  greatest  and  most 
dangerous  enemy  of  the  Jewish  religion  in  antiquity 
was  the  religion  of  gross  sensualism,  the  material  love 
of  the  Semites,  namely,  Baal  worship.  In  mediaeval 
ages,  the  enemy  was  represented  by  the  embodiment 
of  spiritualistic  love — Christianity.  The  Jewish  peo¬ 
ple  which,  thanks  to  its  prophets  of  antiquity  and 
rabbis  of  the  Middle  Ages,  kept  its  religion  from  both 
extremes  of  degeneration,  was,  and  is  still  to-day,  that 
organ  of  humanity  which  expresses  the  living,  crea¬ 
tive  force  in  universal  history,  namely,  the  organ  of 
unifying  and  sanctifying  love.  This  organ  is  akin 
to  the  organ  of  thought,  but  is,  at  the  same  time, 
opposed  to  it.  Both  draw  their  force  from  the  in¬ 
exhaustible  well  of  life.  But,  while  the  religious 
genius  individualizes  the  infinite,  philosophic,  scientific 
thought  abstracts  from  life  all  its  individual,  sub- 


126  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

jective  forms  and  generalizes  it.  Objective  philoso¬ 
phy  and  science  have  no  direct  connection  with  life; 
religious  teaching  is  intimately  united  with  it,  for 
either  religion  is  identical  with  the  national,  social 
and  moral  life,  or  it  is  mere  hypocrisy. 

I  have  wandered  from  my  trend  of  thought.  I 
merely  wanted  to  explain  to  you  why  I  do  not  ally 
myself  with  the  humanitarian  aspirations  which  en¬ 
deavor  to  obliterate  all  differentiation  in  the  organ¬ 
ism  of  humanity  and  in  the  name  of  such  catch  words 
as  “Liberty”  and  “Progress,”  build  altars  to  arbi¬ 
trariness  and  ignorance,  on  which  our  light-minded 
youth  offers  its  best  energies  and  sacrifices. 


TENTH  LETTER 


Another  dilemma  —  Experimental  sciences  —  Philos¬ 
ophy  and  Religion — Progress  and  periodic  circu¬ 
lation  —  A  genetic  comparison  of  the  organic , 
cosmic  life  with  the  social — Moral  necessity  or 
holiness — Epochs  of  social  evolution:  the  paleon¬ 
tological  times  of  the  formation  of  the  embryo , 
birth  period  and  birth  travail,  age  of  maturity. 

Just  as  you  confronted  me  on  a  former  occasion 
with  the  dilemma:  “Humanitarianism  or  National¬ 
ism, and  reproached  me  for  sympathizing  with  na¬ 
tional  aspirations,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  con¬ 
tradict  the  humanitarian  tendencies  of  our  time,  so 
do  you  now  propound  another  dilemma:  “Freedom  or 
Necessity.”  You  think  it  pure  fatalism  to  consider 
humanity  as  a  higher  organism,  and  to  observe  in 
the  history  of  nations  the  operation  of  the  same 
eternal  laws  which  govern  the  history  of  the  earth 
and  Nature.  You  think  that  in  cosmic  and  organic 
life,  moral  laws  do  not  obtain;  here  only  natural 
forces  operate,  which  are  predetermined,  and  which 
can  be  calculated  beforehand.  But  it  is  different  with 
social  life.  Even  this  life  is  regulated  by  natural 
conditions,  but  it  is  the  goal  of  man,  who  is  a  free 
being,  to  overcome  the  fatalism  of  Nature  with  his 
free-will  actions,  which  are  the  basis  of  morality  and 
progress  in  the  higher  sense. 

127 


128 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


I  am  pleased  to  see  that  you  are  well  versed  in  the 
higher  philosophical  conceptions  of  German  thought. 
I  agree  with  you  in  your  view  of  human  life  and  be¬ 
lieve,  also,  that  moral  freedom  is  the  destiny  of  man 
as  well  as  of  humanity.  But  to  me  this  goal  of  hu¬ 
manity  is  identical  with  the  recognition  of  God,  which 
Judaism  proclaimed  at  the  very  beginning  of  its  his¬ 
tory,  and  to  the  spread  and  development  of  which 
it  has  always  contributed,  and  which,  since  Spinoza, 
it  has  made  accessible  to  all  historical  nations.  This 
knowledge  of  God,  which  in  its  first  manifestations  as 
the  spirit  of  historical  humanity,  had  not  been  fully 
conceived,  but  only  perceived  through  unanalyzed 
sense  impressions  and  intuitive  experience,  and  which 
heretofore  had  appeared  only  as  wisdom  and  light, 
must  henceforth,  on  the  basis  of  the  already  acquired 
wisdom  and  light,  progress  and  become  an  exact  sci¬ 
ence,  which  draws  its  knowledge  not  only  from  in¬ 
ternal  and  external  experience,  but  also  examines 
it  critically. 

In  order  to  forestall  your  criticism  of  my  Jewish 
view  of  the  world  through  arguments  based  upon 
speculative  philosophy,  I  have  no  other  choice  but 
to  prove  to  you  that  philosophic  speculation  is  not 
the  last  word  in  mental  development,  as  little  as  is 
industrial  speculation  and  dominance  of  Capital  the 
goal  of  material  development.  Exact  science,  which 
recognizes  only  observation,  experience,  work  and  re¬ 
search,  as  the  only  legitimate  means  of  acquiring 
mental  and  material  wealth,  and  considers  speculation 
to  be  only  a  combination  of  mental  trickery  and  un- 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


129 


founded  hypothesis  must,  in  my  case,  become  the  su¬ 
preme  authority  to  which  I  appeal.  I  will  show  you, 
that  although  exact  science,  which  recognizes  only 
eternal  natural  laws,  seems  to  be  in  apparent  contra¬ 
diction  to  philosophy,  which  raises  spirit  above  na¬ 
ture,  and  to  religion,  which  sanctifies  both  spirit  and 
nature ,  insofar  as  it  subordinates  them  both  to  a 
single  being,  yet  it  finally  changes  into  that  perfect 
knowledge,  which  conceives  the  laws  of  nature  and 
history  as  one  and  the  same,  and  where  all  contradic¬ 
tion  disappears.  But  I  must  first  make  you  under¬ 
stand  that  even  this  apparent  contradiction  between 
science  and  philosophy  and  religion  had  its  justifica¬ 
tion,  and  was  a  necessary  stage  in  the  history  of 
human  development.1 

Even  to-day,  science,  philosophy  and  religion  are 
not  reconciled  to  one  another.  On  the  contrary,  to¬ 
day,  when  we  are  on  the  eve  of  a  new  historical  era, 
just  as  in  the  corresponding  critical  transition  period 
from  antiquity  to  the  Middle  Ages,  the  seemingly 
irreconcilable  antagonism  between  religion,  philoso¬ 
phy  and  experimental  science,  is  more  marked  than 
it  was  in  the  heyday  of  the  ancient  or  mediaeval  world, 
which  hardly  knew  such  an  antagonism.  The  basis 
of  this  theoretical  contradiction,  just  as  the  practical 
antagonism  in  social  life,  lies  in  the  unequal  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  various  classes  of  humanity,  in  the  rela- 

i  Cf.  Die  genetische  Weltanschauung.  Also  Resultat  der 
Philo sophie  und  der  Erfahrungswissenschaften,  von  M.  Hess, 
in  the  periodical  Der  Oedanke,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  103.  See  also 
Epilogue  4. 


130  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

tions  between  the  dominant  and  subservient  races  and 
classes,  in  the  division  of  material  and  intellectual 
labor,  and  in  the  acquisitions  resulting  from  this 
division.  This  inequality  of  development,  advancing 
with  the  progress  of  civilization,  was  the  rock  upon 
which  ancient  society  foundered.  In  the  material  and 
mental  spheres,  and  especially  in  the  latter,  these 
contrasts,  which  ruined  the  ancient  world,  are  more 
sharply  defined  to-day  than  they  were  at  the  close  of 
the  age  of  antiquity,  when  the  division  of  labor  was 
not  as  minutely  developed  as  it  is  in  our  present 
transition  period.  The  result  is  that  to-day,  as  in 
the  ancient  world,  not  only  is  religion  in  conflict  with 
philosophy,  but  philosophy  is  also  antagonistic  to 
exact  science.  And  yet,  as  you  will  yourself  admit, 
truth  in  experimental  science  cannot  be  different  from 
truth  in  philosophy  or  in  religion.  But  as  long  as 
the  reconciliation  between  these  various  spheres  of 
knowledge  is  not  accomplished,  it  will  be  a  difficult 
matter  for  me  to  prove  to  you,  in  a  few  lines,  or 
even  to  make  it  plausible  to  you,  that  science,  philoso¬ 
phy  and  religion  do  not  mutually  exclude  each  other ; 
that  at  the  worst,  they  only  ignore  each  other;  and 
that  finally,  they  will  support  each  other  and  with 
united  forces  help  the  progress  of  mankind. 

Let  us,  then,  first  make  clear  to  ourselves  the  oft- 
misunderstood  concepts  of  “Freedom”  and  “Prog¬ 
ress,  which  are  so  often  carelessly  used. 

The  belief  in  a  rational,  and  therefore  cognizable, 
divine  Law,  as  revealed  to  humanity  in  the  teaching 
and  life  of  Judaism,  this  belief  in  a  divine  Providence, 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


131 


in  a  plan  of  creation,  is  not  a  blind,  fatalistic  belief 
in  destiny,  although  it  excludes  arbitrary  and  law¬ 
less  freedom.  I  do  not  assert,  with  the  materialists, 
that  the  organic  and  spiritual  world  is  subjected, 
like  the  inorganic  world,  to  the  same  laws  as  an  ex¬ 
ternal  mechanism.  On  the  contrary,  I  affirm  that 
cosmic  mechanical  phenomena  have  the  same  plan,  the 
same  purposiveness,  and  spring  out  of  the  same  sacred 
life  as  organic  and  spiritual  phenomena.  Nature  and 
humanity  are  subordinated  to  the  same  divine  law. 
The  difference  is,  that  Nature  follows  this  law  blindly, 
while  man,  when  perfectly  developed,  obeys  it  con¬ 
sciously  and  voluntarily.  Another  important  differ¬ 
ence,  the  non-observance  of  which  gives  rise  to  a 
misunderstanding  of  the  concepts  of  “Freedom”  and 
“Progress,”  lies  in  this,  that  while  the  natural  sphere 
of  life  of  the  organic  and  cosmic  world,  which  is  the 
basis  of  our  social,  human  sphere  of  life,  has  already 
accomplished  its  own  development,  humanity  is  still 
in  the  midst  of  its  life-creating  process.  As  long 
as  human  society  is  still  occupied  in  the  production 
of  its  own  organism,  man,  in  his  creative  capacity, 
considers  himself  as  an  irresponsible  and  unfettered 
being,  although  he,  like  Nature,  is  subordinated,  in 
his  very  creation,  to  the  eternal  divine  laws.  The 
false  conception  of  human  freedom  as  arbitrariness 
arises  mainly  from  the  fact  that  we  do  not  as  yet 
know  either  the  laws  regulating  the  development  of 
social  life  or  its  goal ;  and  we  cannot  know  this  law 
from  experience  so  long  as  we  are  still  in  the  midst 
of  the  stream  of  development. 


132  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

But  though  science  is  still  silent  concerning  the 
law  governing  the  development  of  social  life,  the  re- 
ligious  genius  discovered  it  long  ago.  We  Jews  have 
always,  from  the  beginning  of  our  history,  cherished 
the  faith  in  a  future  Messianic  epoch.  This  belief  is 
symbolically  expressed,  in  our  historical  religion,  by 
the  Sabbath  festival.  The  celebration  of  the  Sabbath 
is  the  embodiment  of  the  great  idea  which  has  always 
animated  us,  namely,  that  the  future  will  bring  about 
the  realization  of  the  historical  Sabbath,  just  as  the 
past  gave  us  the  natural  Sabbath.  In  other  words, 
that  History,  like  Nature,  will  finally  have  her  epoch 
of  harmonious  perfection.  The  Biblical  story  of  the 
Creation  is  told  only  for  the  sake  of  the  Sabbath 
ideal.  It  tells  us,  in  symbolic  language,  that  when 
the  creation  of  the  world  of  Nature  was  completed, 
with  the  calling  into  life  of  the  highest  organic  being 
of  the  earth  Man  and  the  Creator  celebrated  his 
natural  Sabbath,  there  at  once  began  the  work-days 
of  History.  Then,  also,  began  the  history  of  creation 
of  the  social  world,  which  will  celebrate  its  Sabbath 
after  the  completion  of  its  world-historical  labor,  by 
introducing  the  Messianic  epoch.  Here,  in  this  con¬ 
ception,  you  can  see  the  high  moral  value  of  the 
Mosaic  genesis  history,  in  which  supernaturalists  have 
discovered  a  system  of  science.  As  you  see,  my 
esteemed  friend,  the  very  biblical  Sabbath-law  in 
itself  inspires  us  with  a  feeling  of  certainty  that  the 
uniform,  eternal,  divine  law  governs  alike  both  the 
world  of  Nature  and  the  world  of  History.  It  is 
only  to  those  people  who  cannot  conceive  the  mani- 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


133 


festation  of  the  religious  genius  of  the  Jews,  that  the 
historical  development  of  humanity  appears  as  law¬ 
less,  indeterminate,  infinite  “Progress”  when  con¬ 
trasted  with  the  life  of  Nature  which,  though  it  has 
not  reached  the  end  of  its  development,  is  yet  gov¬ 
erned  by  strict  laws  which  are  calculable.  You  see, 
however,  that  this  apparent  difference  between  the 
laws  of  Nature  and  those  of  History,  is  only  the 
result  of  a  subjective  conception  which  cannot  rise  to 
an  understanding  of  the  great  universal,  divine  laws. 
We  can  as  little  think  of  the  freedom  of  the  created 
being  of  History  as  mere  lawless  arbitrariness,  as  we 
can  speak  of  the  historical  progress  as  infinite. 

We  call  every  being  free,  in  the  natural  sense, 
which  can  develop  its  own  destiny,  its  inner  calling, 
according  to  its  natural  inclinations,  without  any  ex¬ 
ternal  restraint.  That  being  is  free,  in  the  moral 
sense,  which  follows  its  calling  with  consciousness  and 
will,  whose  will  coincides  with  the  divine  law  or  will. 
Every  other  form  of  will  is  only  arbitrariness,  which 
does  not  partake  of  the  divine  essence  of  willing,  but 
owes  its  existence  to  passions  and  natural  instincts. 
This  ability  to  follow  the  desires  and  passions  which 
lead  astray  from  the  path  of  reason  and  morality, 
man  possesses  only  when  his  inner  essence  is  not  suf¬ 
ficiently  developed.  Man  can  certainly  not  be  proud 
of  this  negative  ability,  which  is  no  more  than  a 
disease,  a  disease  indicating  a  lack  of  development. 
This  ability  does  not  raise  him  above  the  animal,  but 
on  the  contrary  puts  him  below  it ;  for  animal  life,  as 
well  as  plant  life,  is  already  developed  and  perfected. 


134 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


“Man,”  says  Goethe,  “errs  as  long  as  he  strives.” 
But  there  is  no  striving  without  a  purpose.  The  goal 
to  which  humanity,  in  the  course  of  its  historical 
development,  strives  is  the  recognition  of  the  laws 
which  govern  all  the  three  life-spheres,  the  social,  or¬ 
ganic  and  cosmic. 

The  law  of  the  universe  is  the  law  of  generation 
and  development,  or  to  use  a  better-known  expres¬ 
sion,  “the  law  of  progress.”  The  complete  and  per¬ 
fect  operation  of  this  law,  in  all  the  three  life-spheres, 
is  not  yet  known.  In  order  to  recognize  fully  the 
workings  of  this  law,  we  still  miss  a  part  of  its  field 
of  operation — the  last  phase  of  development  of  the 
social  life.  The  law  of  history,  therefore,  cannot  as 
yet  become  scientifically  known.  The  ways  of  Provi¬ 
dence  are  still  but  dimly  outlined  for  us.  But,  thanks 
to  the  religious  genius  of  the  Jews  and  its  divine 
Revelation,  which  continually  manifested  itself  in 
various  forms :  first  in  prophetic  utterances,  then  in 
mysticism,  and  finally  in  philosophic  speculation — the 
human  spirit  was  constantly  brought  nearer  to  the 
recognition  of  this  law.  It  is,  however,  still  necessary 
that  the  law  of  history  should  be  investigated  and  its 
operations  defined  by  the  experimental  sciences. 

What  modern  science  knows  about  the  law  of  gen¬ 
eration  and  development  operating  in  the  three  life- 
spheres,  the  cosmic,  organic  and  social,  I  have  already 
discussed  elsewhere.2  But  I  have  come  to  the  con¬ 
clusion,  through  my  scientific  and  historical  studies, 
that  there  is  only  one  law  governing  all  movement 

2  See  Note  VII  at  end  of  book. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


135 


and  life  phenomena  of  all  the  spheres  of  the  universe, 
the  organisms  of  the  earth  and  the  nations  of  history. 
There  is  as  little  infinite,  indeterminate  progress  in 
the  social  human  world,  as  there  is  in  the  plant  and 
animal  world,  at  the  end  of  which  stands  the  natural, 
undeveloped  man.  Here,  as  in  the  cosmic  life-sphere, 
the  field  of  operation  of  which  is  infinite  space,3 
everything  is  generated,  develops,  accomplishes  its 
aim  in  life,  and  then  decays  and  dissolves  in  order  to 
arise  again  to  a  new  life  entity  in  the  eternal,  infinite, 
unified  and  divine  cycle  of  universal  life.  What  we 
call  “progress”  is  no  more  than  the  development  of  a 
being  from  the  germ  stage  to  the  mature  life  stage. 
At  this  stage  each  being  reaches  its  destination. 

Just  as  beings  vary,  just  as  the  difference  be¬ 
tween  the  single  atom  and  the  entire  world-sphere, 
between  the  lowest  organic  infusorium  and  the  high¬ 
est  earthly  being — Man — is  wide  and  great,  so  vari¬ 
ous  and  wide  is  the  difference  between  their  ages  of 
life  maturity  and  consequently  between  their  goals 
and  destinations.  But  nothing  living  remains  un¬ 
changed  in  time  and  space,  nothing  is  eternal,  every¬ 
thing  comes  into  existence,  and  ultimately  disappears 
after  it  has  carried  out  its  mission  in  order  to  arise 
again  to  a  new  form  of  life.4 

3  Cf.  Essai  d’une  gendse  comparde  de  la  vie  cosmique, 
organique  et  sociale,  in  the  Revue  philosophique  et  religieuse, 
for  the  years  1855-1856. 

4  Hess  concedes  the  infinity  of  space  as  well  as  the  infinity 
of  life  in  the  universe,  but  views  this  latter  infinity  not  as  a 
constant  and  given  only  as  a  recurrent  and  cyclical.  In  this 
view  he  was  preceded  by  Heraclitus  and  the  Stoics,  but  the 


136  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

The  great  planetary  bodies  originated  and  devel¬ 
oped  in  a  space  and  time  of  such  magnitude  that  we 
have  no  standard  of  comparison  wherewith  to  measure 
it.  Organic  life,  which  began  to  develop  on  these 
bodies  after  they  had  already  cooled  off  and  their 
surface  had  become  rigid,  consumed  the  entire  palae¬ 
ontological  age  in  its  development  and  perfection. 
Finally,  man,  who  began  his  spiritual,  humane  and 
social  development  at  the  ripe  age  of  the  organic 
life  sphere,  will  reach  his  destination  only  after  hu¬ 
manity  will  have  completed  its  historical  development 
which,  though  it  has  not  reached  its  end  as  yet,  is 
still  not  unlimited  and  infinite. 

Whatever  arises  in  time  requires,  of  course,  a  cer¬ 
tain  time  for  its  development,  but  it  must  reach  its 
completion  and  perfection  in  a  finite  and  determinate 
time.  We  recognize  only  one  eternal,  timeless  and 
spaceless,  absolute  Being.  We  infer  its  existence 
through  the  one  absolute  law  governing  natural  and 
historical  life,  the  revelation  of  which  only  Judaism 
possessed.  Out  of  the  unified  recognition  of  this 
law  a  unified  life  will  necessarily  follow;  for  knowl¬ 
edge  and  action,  or  theory  and  life,  are  inseparable. 
Dualism,  struggle,  and  even  victory  of  virtue  exist 
only  during  the  historical  development  of  the  recog¬ 
nition  of  God,  but  not  after  its  perfection.  During 
this  development,  we  are  only  able  to  strive  after 
morality;  but  after  the  recognition  of  God,  or  his 

novelty  of  the  view  consists  in  his  introducing  the  creative 
factor,  and  in  this  he  is  the  precursor  of  the  Bergsonian  con¬ 
ception  of  Creative  Evolution.  Cf.  Introduction.— Translator. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


137 


law  is  perfected  within  us,  we  must  live  morally. 
This  moral  necessity  is  holiness.  Judaism,  which  from 
the  beginning  of  its  history  revealed  the  unity  and 
sacredness  of  the  divine  law  in  Nature  and  history, 
has,  therefore,  from  the  beginning,  put  forth  the  de¬ 
mand  that  holiness  should  become  an  ideal  of  life,  and 
its  prophets  have  always  heralded  the  coming  of  the 
epoch  when  men  will  arrive  at  the  full  knowledge  of 
God.5 

We  must  not  represent  either  the  sacred  essence  of 
God,  or  even  our  own  God-like  essence,  in  terms  of 
time  and  space.  The  perfect  recognition  is,  in  reality, 
the  overcoming  of  spatiality  and  temporality,  namely, 
the  historical  development  of  the  divine  law  in  the 
cosmic,  organic  and  social  life  spheres.  We  display 
our  imperfect  development  and  immature  knowledge 
when  we  represent  eternity  as  time  continuance.  Such 
representations  prove  only  that  our  relation  to  holi¬ 
ness  is  not  as  yet  perfect.  The  revelations  of  the 
holy  spirit  point  to  no  other  future  but  to  the  mature 
age  of  the  social  world.  This  age  will  begin,  accord¬ 
ing  to  our  historical  religion,  with  the  Messianic  era. 
This  is  the  era  in  which  the  Jewish  nation  and  all 
the  other  historical  nations  will  arise  again  to  a  new 
life,  the  time  of  the  “resurrection  of  the  dead,”  of 
“the  coming  of  the  Lord,”  of  the  “New  Jerusalem,” 

s  Cf.  Leviticus  xix,  2;  Jeremiah  xxxi,  31,  33,  45.  All  pro¬ 
phetic  descriptions  which  Christianity  has  applied  to  itself, 
really  characterize  the  epoch  of  a  perfected  human  life  dom¬ 
inated  by  the  knowledge  of  God  or  by  a  perfect  attitude 
toward  holiness. 


138  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


and  of  all  the  other  symbolic  expressions,  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  which  is  no  longer  misunderstood. 

The  Messianic  era  is  the  present  age,  which  began 
to  germinate  with  the  teachings  of  Spinoza,  and  finally 
came  into  historical  existence  with  the  great  French 
Revolution.6  With  the  French  Revolution,  there  be¬ 
gan  the  regeneration  of  those  nations  which  had  ac¬ 
quired  their  national  historical  religion  only  through 
the  influence  of  Judaism. 


The  social  life-sphere,  like  the  cosmic  and  the  or¬ 
ganic,  is  divided  in  its  development  into  three  epochs, 
which  in  their  intrinsic  structure  are  analogous  in  all 
the  three  life  spheres.  The  first  manifestation  of  his- 
tory,  that  of  ancient  Judaism  and  Paganism,  is  the 
palaeontological  epoch  of  social  life.  It  corresponds, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  the  embryological  epoch  in  the 
history  of  development  of  organic  life  on  this  earth, 
which  terminated  in  the  tertiary  period  with  the  birth 
of  the  present  existing  organisms ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  analogous,  in  the  cosmic  sphere,  to  the 
epoch  of  world  formation,  the  age  of  comets  and 


6  This  view  of  the  world  I  have  already  expressed  in  my 
hrst  work  which  appeared  in  the  year  1836.  (Cf.  The  Sacred 
*tor?  °f  M<™kind,  by  a  young  Spinozist,  where  I  wrote  the 
following:  “As  the  appointed  period  of  the  Medieval  world 
terminated,  there  again  rose  the  ancient  voice  of  the  Court  of 
history:  ‘My  spirit  shall  not  strive  with  Man,’  Gen.  vi,  3.). 

There  followed  after  Spinoza  no  destructive  flood  of  water 
as  after  Adam,  or  a  flood  of  tribes  and  peoples  as  after  Christ! 
but  out  of  the  womb  of  time  there  burst  forth  a  flood  of 
ideas,  which  destroyed  and  wiped  out  every  obstacle  in  its 
path.  .  With  the  French  Revolution,  the  third  and  last 

stage  of  development  of  humanity  began,  the  process  of  which 
is  not  yet  completed.” 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


139 


nebulae,  an  age  which  finally  culminated  in  the  birth 
and  rise  of  the  astral  bodies. 

The  second  manifestation  of  history,  that  of  mediae¬ 
val  Judaism,  Christianity  and  Islam,  is  the  epoch  of 
the  birth  of  modern  Society.  It  corresponds,  in  the 
organic  sphere,  to  the  period  of  the  birth  of  the 
present  existing  organisms,  and  in  the  cosmic  world 
to  the  time  of  the  birth  of  the  planetary  bodies. 

The  third  manifestation  of  history,  namely,  the 
present  age  of  the  social  life-sphere,  corresponds  to 
the  epoch  of  perfected  organisms  in  the  organic 
sphere  and  that  of  the  developed  planetary  system 
in  the  cosmic. 

This  age  of  maturity  began,  in  the  cosmic  sphere, 
with  the  satellites  or  double  stars  and  ended  with 
the  perfection  of  the  solar  systems;  in  the  organic 
sphere,  it  began  with  the  prehistoric  period,  and 
finally  came  to  completion  in  the  historic  races  of 
mankind.  In  the  social  sphere,  it  is  not  yet  com¬ 
pleted;  it  is  at  present  developing  its  last  race  and 
class  struggle,  in  order  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia¬ 
tion  of  all  opposites  and  to  establish  an  equilibrium 
between  production  and  consumption,  and  finally  to 
reach  that  perfected  and  harmonious  course  of  life 
which  characterizes  every  age  of  maturity. 

You  will  find,  esteemed  friend,  the  world-view,  here 
outlined,  to  be  the  underlying  basis  of  all  my  works. 
I  have  never  held  any  other  since  I  became  a  writer. 
It  is  the  soul  of  my  aspirations.  Its  realization  is 
my  life  work,  and  at  the  opportune  moment  I  hope 
to  develop  it  further.  The  narrow  limits  of  a  letter 


140 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


do  not  allow  more  detailed  discussion  of  such  a  broad 
subject.  Besides,  I  am  at  present  too  much  inter¬ 
ested  in  the  fate  of  my  own  people  to  devote  myself 
to  the  solution  of  a  problem  which,  though  intrinsi- 
cally  connected  with  the  future  of  Judaism,  must 
first  await  the  solution  of  the  Jewish  national  problem. 


ELEVENTH  LETTER 


Regenerated  Judaism  and  the  sacrificial  cult — Two 
thousand  year  yearning  of  the  nation  for  a  new 
center  in  Zion — Patriotic  songs  and  prayers — An 
old  legend — Signs  of  the  times — The  time  of  re¬ 
turn  approaches — The  Eastern  Question  and  the 
Jews — A  Frenchman’s  enthusiastic  appeal . 

You  ask  me  to  come  back  to  earth  from  the  starry 
regions  of  philosophy  to  the  soil  of  Palestine.  You 
certainly  love  the  antithesis.  As  an  offset  to  the 
noble  and  exalted  historical  religion  of  my  regener¬ 
ated  Judaism,  you  oppose  the  “bloody  sacrificial  cult” 
of  the  ancient  Israelites,  and  claim  that  orthodox 
Jews  will  never  agree  to  a  rebuilding  of  the  Temple 
without,  at  the  same  time,  reinstituting  this  ancient 
cult.  You  assume,  therefore,  that  my  love  for  my 
people  will  not  go  so  far  as  to  consent  to  an  intro¬ 
duction  of  the  sacrificial  cult. 

I  cannot  grant  you,  however,  either  the  supposed 
conditio  sine  qua  non ,  on  the  part  of  orthodox  Jews, 
or  your  hypothetical  conception  of  the  degree  of  my 
patriotism.  In  regard  to  my  deep,  reawakened, 
though  belated  love  for  my  people,  it  seems  to  me 
that  you  forget  that  real,  strong  love,  the  love  which 
dominates  body  and  spirit  alike,  is  always  blind.  Its 
blindness  consists  in  this,  that  it  is  not  the  perfection 
and  excellent  qualities  of  the  beloved  which  are  the 

141 


142 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


object  of  love’s  desire,  but  the  beloved  being  as  it  is, 
with  all  its  good  and  bad  traits.  Love  desires  not  the 
object  of  affection  because  it  hopes  to  improve  its 
bad  traits,  but  because  it  loves  the  undivided,  indi¬ 
vidual  entity.  The  scar  on  the  face  of  my  beloved 
does  not  detract  from  my  love  for  her,  but  is  itself 
dear  to  me;  dearer,  perhaps,  than  her  beautiful  eyes, 
for  other  women  may  have  beautiful  eyes,  but  the 
scar  is  characteristic  only  of  my  beloved’s  individ¬ 
uality.  Were,  really,  the  sacrificial  cult  an  insepa¬ 
rable  part  of  Jewish  nationality,  I  would  unhesitat¬ 
ingly  accept  it.  But  as  long  as  I  have  not  learned 
anything  better,  I  am  convinced  to  the  contrary. 
Our  exalted  historical  religion,  a  religion  which  has 
progressed  from  one  enlightened  condition  to  an¬ 
other,  which  breathes  only  love  for  humanity  and  the 
knowledge  of  God,1  cannot  have  the  sacrificial  cult 
as  an  essential  part  of  its  being.  But  in  spite  of  my 
personal  conviction,  let  me  not  venture  to  anticipate 
history.  There  are  certain  questions  which  a  priori , 
namely,  in  a  practical  way,  seem  to  be  insolvable,  but 

i  Bunsen  remarks  in  his  Biblical  work,  that  the  world  pro¬ 
gressed  from  light  creation  to  light  generation.  If  the  Rab¬ 
binic  phrase:  “He  prophesied  but  did  not  know  what  he 
prophesied”  is  ever  applicable,  it  is  applicable  here.  Bunsen 
hardly  thought  of  our  two  thousand  years’  yearning  for  a  new 
creation  of  light  for  Zion,  which  is  expressed  in  our  daily 
prayer,  the  Shema,  etc.  To  Him  that  maketh  the  great  lumi¬ 
naries  we  pray,  “Cause  a  new  light  to  shine  upon  Zion  and 
may  we  all  be  worthy  soon  to  enjoy  its  brightness.”  This 
Shema  prayer  is  the  jewel  of  our  prayer  book.  Like  a  costly 
stone  framed  in  purest  gold,  is  the  Shema  surrounded  by 
hymns  and  prayers  such  as  Ahaba  Rabba,  V’ahabta,  Ahavath 
’Olam,  all  of  which  breathe  love  and  reverence  for  knowledge. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


143 


which,  in  the  course  of  historical  development,  solve 
themselves.  To  such  questions  belongs  also  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  cult  in  general,  and  the  development  of  a 
definite  form  of  divine  worship  out  of  the  moral,  re¬ 
ligious  spirit  of  that  nation  which,  at  every  period 
of  its  development,  was  the  creator  of  its  own  re¬ 
ligion  in  particular. 

Dr.  Sachs,  from  whose  classical  work  I  have  al¬ 
ready  cited  excerpts,  when  speaking  of  the  rigidity 
of  the  religious  norms  in  exile  and  contrasting  with 
this  rigidity  their  former  historical  development  on 
the  soil  of  Palestine,  says:  “The  ground  of  a  living, 
historical  reality  is  too  wide  to  be  encompassed  by  a 
ready-made  system  of  norms  and  rules ;  nay,  even  the 
fixed  norms  themselves  cannot  withstand  the  strong 
influence  of  the  free-moving  expression  of  life  and  re¬ 
main  unchanged.  The  rushing  current  of  a  living 
movement  undermines  the  obstructing  dikes  and  pene¬ 
trates  by  its  windings  and  meanderings  into  the  hard 
rocks  of  the  shore.”  It  is  only  after  the  extinction 
of  the  national  life  of  the  people,  which  molded  the 
religious  norms  in  live  fashion,  that  these  norms  have 
assumed  a  form  of  rigidity.  But  this  rigidity  will 
disappear  from  the  religious  life,  as  soon  as  the  ex¬ 
tinct  national  life  comes  into  existence  again,  when 
the  current  of  a  national  historical  development 
forces  itself  anew  into  the  hard  and  rigid  religious 
forms. 

The  holy  spirit,  the  creative  genius  of  the  people, 
out  of  which  Jewish  life  and  teaching  arose,  deserted 
Israel  when  its  children  began  to  feel  ashamed  of  their 


1U 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


nationality.  But  this  spirit  will  again  animate  our 
people  when  it  awakens  to  a  new  life,  and  creates  new 
things  of  which  we  have  at  present  not  even  a  con¬ 
ception.  No  one  can  foretell  what  form  and  shape 
the  newborn  life  and  spirit  of  the  regenerated  nations 
will  assume.  As  regards  the  religious  cult,  and  espe¬ 
cially  the  Jewish  cult,  it  will  certainly  be  different 
from  the  present  as  well  as  from  the  ancient  form. 

Regarded  by  itself,  the  sacrificial  cult,  as  described 
in  the  Bible,  does  not  contain  anything  repellent  to 
the  spirit  of  humanitarianism.  On  the  contrary,  as 
compared  with  the  horrible  custom  of  human  sacri¬ 
fices  practiced  by  all  the  nations  of  antiquity,  the 
Jewish  practice  of  animal  sacrifices  was  a  splendid 
victory  for  the  spirit  of  humanitarianism.2  Be  that 
as  it  may,  whether  animal  sacrifices  are  regarded  as 
a  concession  on  the  part  of  the  Torah  to  Paganism, 
in  order  to  prevent  a  relapse  on  the  part  of  the 
people  into  idolatry,  or  whether  it  be  maintained  that 
it  contains  a  hidden  symbolism,  the  meaning  of  which 
is  at  present  unknown,  one  thing  is  well  established, 
that  the  Jews,  in  spite  of  their  having  brought 
“bloody  sacrifices,”  possess  greater  abhorrence  for 
bloodshed  and  the  eating  of  blood  than  modern  na¬ 
tions  which  consume  the  blood  together,  with  the 
meat,  without  sacrifice  or  ceremony.  But  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  cult  has  not  been  practiced  for  the  last  eigh¬ 
teen  hundred  years,  and  therefore  our  new-fashioned 
Jews  are  ashamed  of  it.  And  yet  it  seems  that  even 
to  the  present  day,  sacrifice  is  the  natural  expression 

2  See  Note  VIII  at  end  of  book. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


145 


of  the  pious  spirit  of  the  child.  Goethe  tells  us,  that 
in  his  childhood,  the  only  way  he  could  satisfy  his 
religious  craving  was  by  means  of  sacrifice  to  the 
Eternal,  which  he  performed  by  lighting  a  bonfire 
and  throwing  therein  his  favorite  toys. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  prophets  of  old,  and  even 
the  rabbis  of  the  Middle  Ages,  never  considered  the 
sacrificial  cult  essential  to  the  Jewish  religion  as  do 
modern  rigidly  orthodox  Jews,  who  look  upon  it  as 
inseparable  from  our  national  restoration.  Rabbi 
Jochanan  ben  Zakkai  declared,  basing  his  utterance 
on  the  prophetic  saying  in  Hosea  vi,  6,  that  sacrifices 
can  be  substituted  by  benevolence,3  and  a  number  of 
modern  rabbinical  authorities,  who  do  not  recognize 
the  right  of  the  modern  descendants  of  Aaron  to  the 
priesthood,  have  yet  declared  themselves  zealously  for 
the  restoration  of  a  Jewish  State.4  The  cult  that  we 
are  going  to  introduce  in  the  New  Jerusalem  can  and 
must,  for  the  present,  remain  an  open  question.  Rome 
was  not  built  in  a  day,  and  the  New  Jerusalem  must 
needs  take  time  for  its  construction. 

What  we  have  to  do  at  present  for  the  regeneration 
of  the  Jewish  nation  is,  first,  to  keep  alive  the  hope 
of  the  political  rebirth  of  our  people,  and  next,  to 
reawaken  that  hope  where  it  slumbers.  W^hen  polit¬ 
ical  conditions  in  the  Orient  shape  themselves  so  as 
to  permit  the  organization  of  a  beginning  of  the 
restoration  of  a  Jewish  State,  this  beginning  will  ex- 

3  For  the  saying  of  Ben  Zakkai,  see  Baba  Bathra,  10b. 
Translator. 

4  gee  Note  X  at  end  of  book. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


146 

press  itself  in  the  founding  of  Jewish  colonies  in  the 
land  of  their  ancestors,  to  which  enterprise  France 
will  undoubtedly  lend  a  hand.  You  know  how  sub¬ 
stantial  was  the  share  of  the  Jews  in  the  subscriptions 
to  the  fund  raised  for  the  benefit  of  the  Syrian  war 
victims.  It  was  Cremieux  who  took  the  initiative  in 
the  matter,  the  same  Cremieux  who  twenty  years  ago 
traveled  with  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  to  Syria  in  order 
to  seek  protection  for  the  Jews  against  the  persecu¬ 
tions  of  the  Christians.  In  the  Journal  des  Debats , 
which  very  seldom  accepts  poems  for  publication, 
there  appeared,  at  the  time  of  the  Syrian  expedition, 
a  poem  by  Leon  Halevi,  who  at  the  time,  perhaps, 
thought  as  little  of  the  rebirth  of  Israel  as  Cremieux, 
yet  his  beautiful  stanzas  could  not  have  been  pro¬ 
duced  otherwise  than  in  a  spirit  of  foreseeing  this 
regeneration.  When  the  poet  of  the  Schwalben 
mournfully  complains: 

Where  tarries  the  hero?  Where  tarries  the  wise? 
Who  will,  O  my  people,  revive  you  anew; 

Who  will  save  you,  and  give  you  again 
A  place  in  the  sun? 

The  French  poet  answers  his  query  with  enthusi¬ 
astic  confidence: 

Ye  shall  be  reborn,  ye  fearsome  cities ! 

A  breath  of  security  will  always  hover 

O’er  your  banks  where  our  colors  have  fluttered! 

Come  again  a  call  supreme ! 

Au  revoir  is  not  adieu — 

France  is  all  to  those  she  loves, 

The  future  belongs  to  God. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


147 


Alexander  Weill  sang  about  the  same  time: 

There  is  a  people  stiff  of  neck, 

Dispersed  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Rhine, 

Its  whole  life  centered  in  a  Book — 

Ofttimes  bent,  yet  ever  straightened; 

Braving  hatred  and  contempt, 

It  only  dies  to  live  again 
In  nobler  form. 

France,  beloved  friend,  is  the  savior  who  will  re¬ 
store  our  people  to  its  place  in  universal  history. 

Allow  me  to  recall  to  your  mind  an  old  legend  which 
you  have  probably  heard  in  your  younger  days.  It 
runs  as  follows : 

“A  knight  who  went  to  the  Holy  Land  to  assist 
in  the  liberation  of  Jerusalem,  left  behind  him  a  very 
dear  friend.  While  the  knight  fought  valiantly  on 
the  field  of  battle,  his  friend  spent  his  time,  as  here¬ 
tofore,  in  the  study  of  the  Talmud,  for  his  friend  was 

none  other  than  a  pious  rabbi. 

“Months  afterward,  when  the  knight  returned 
home,  he  appeared  suddenly  at  midnight,  in  the  study 
room  of  the  rabbi,  whom  he  found,  as  usual,  absorbed 
in  his  Talmud.  ‘God’s  greetings  to  you,  dear  old 
friend,’  he  said.  T  have  returned  from  the  Holy 
Land  and  bring  you  from  there  a  pledge  of  our  friend¬ 
ship.  What  I  gained  by  my  sword,  you  are  striving 
to  obtain  with  your  spirit.  Our  ways  lead  to  the 
same  goal.’  W^hile  thus  speaking,  the  knight  handed 

the  rabbi  a  rose  of  Jericho. 

“The  rabbi  took  the  rose  and  moistened  it  with  his 


148 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


tears,  and  immediately  the  withered  rose  began  to 
bloom  again  in  its  full  glory  and  splendor.  And  the 
rabbi  said  to  the  knight:  ‘Do  not  wonder,  my  friend, 
that  the  withered  rose  bloomed  again  in  my  hands. 
The  rose  possesses  the  same  characteristics  as  our 
people:  it  comes  to  life  again  at  the  touch  of  the 
warm  breath  of  love,  in  spite  of  its  having  been  torn 
from  its  own  soil  and  left  to  wither  in  foreign  lands. 
So  will  Israel  bloom  again  in  youthful  splendor  ;  and 
the  spark,  at  present  smoldering  under  the  ashes,  will 
burst  once  more  into  a  bright  flame.’  ” 

The  routes  of  the  rabbi  and  the  knight,  dear  friend, 
are  meeting  to-day.  As  the  rabbi  in  the  story  sym¬ 
bolizes  our  people,  so  does  the  knight  of  the  legend 
signify  the  French  people  which  in  our  days,  as  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  sent  its  brave  soldiers  to  Syria  and 
“prepared  in  the  desert  the  way  of  the  Lord.” 

Have  you  never  read  the  words  of  the  Prophet 
Isaiah:  “Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye,  my  people,  saith 
your  God.  Speak  ye  comfortably  to  the  heart  of 
Jerusalem,  and  cry  unto  her,  that  the  appointed  time 
has  come,  that  her  iniquity  is  pardoned ;  for  she  hath 
received  at  the  Lord’s  hand  double  for  all  her  sins. 
The  voice  of  one  that  crieth  in  the  wilderness,  pre¬ 
pare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  straight  in  the 
desert  a  highway  for  our  God.  Every  valley  shall 
be  exalted,  and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be  made 
low,  and  the  crooked  shall  be  made  a  straight  place, 
and  the  rough  places  a  plain.  And  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  shall  be  revealed,  and  all  flesh  shall  see  it 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM  149 

together:  for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken 
it.”5 

Do  you  not  believe  that  in  these  words,  with  which 
the  second  Isaiah  opened  his  prophecies,  as  well  as  in 
the  words  with  which  the  Prophet  Obadiah  closed 
his  prophecy,6  the  conditions  of  our  own  time  are 
graphically  pictured?  Was  not  help  given  to  Zion 
in  order  to  defend  and  establish  the  wild  mountaineers 
there?  Are  not  things  being  prepared  there  and 
roads  leveled,  and  is  not  the  road  of  civilization  being 
built  in  the  desert  in  the  form  of  the  Suez  Canal 
works  and  the  railroad  which  will  connect  Asia  and 
Europe?  They  are  not  thinking  at  present  of  the 
restoration  of  our  people.  But  you  know  the  prov¬ 
erb,  “Man  proposes  and  God  disposes.”  Just  as  m 
the  West  they  once  searched  for  a  road  to  India,  and 
incidentally  discovered  a  new  world,  so  will  our  lost 
fatherland  be  rediscovered  on  the  road  to  India  and 
China  that  is  now  being  built  in  the  Orient.  Do  you 
still  doubt  that  France  will  help  the  Jews  to  found 
colonies  which  may  extend  from  Suez  to  Jerusalem, 
and  from  the  banks  of  the  Jordan  to  the  Coast  of 
the  Mediterranean?  Then  pray  read  the  work  which 
appeared  shortly  after  the  massacres  in  Syria,  by 
the  famous  publisher,  Dentu,  under  the  title  The  New 
Oriental  Problem .  The  author  hardly  wrote  it  at  the 
request  of  the  French  government,  but  acted  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  French  nation  when 

5  Isaiah  xl,  1-5.  .  ,  ,, 

6  “And  saviors  shall  come  up  on  Mount  Zion  to  judge  tn 

mount  of  Esau;  and  the  kingdom  shall  be  the  Lord’s.’ 


150 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


he  urged  our  brethren,  not  on  religious  grounds,  but 
from  purely  political  and  humanitarian  motives,  to 
restore  their  ancient  State.7 

I  may,  therefore,  recommend  this  work,  written, 
not  by  a  Jew,  but  by  a  French  patriot,  to  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  our  modern  Jews,  who  plume  themselves  on 
borrowed  French  humanitarianism.  I  will  quote  here, 
in  translation,  a  few  pages  of  this  work,  The  New 
Eastern  Question ,  by  Ernest  Laharanne.8 

“In  the  discussion  of  these  new  Eastern  complica¬ 
tions,  we  reserved  a  special  place  for  Palestine,  in 
order  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  world  the  im¬ 
portant  question,  whether  ancient  Judaea  can  once 
more  acquire  its  former  place  under  the  sun. 

“This  question  is  not  raised  here  for  the  first  time. 
The  redemption  of  Palestine,  either  by  the  efforts 
of  international  Jewish  bankers,  or  the  nobler  method, 
of  a  general  subscription  in  which  all  the  Jews  should 
participate,  has  been  discussed  many  times.  Why 
is  it  that  this  patriotic  project  has  not  as  yet  been 
realized?  It  is  certainly  not  the  fault  of  pious  Jews 
that  the  plan  was  frustrated,  for  their  hearts  beat 
fast  and  their  eyes  fill  with  tears  at  the  thought  of 
a  return  to  Jerusalem.9 

7  I  have  heard  that  an  American  writer  has  discussed  this 
question  from  a  practical  point  of  view,  for  a  number  of 
years.  Also  representative  Englishmen  have  repeatedly  de¬ 
clared  themselves  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of  the  Jewish 
State. 

8  See  Note  IX  at  end  of  book. 

9  My  friend,  Armond  L.,  who  traveled  for  several  years 
through  the  Danube  Principalities,  told  me  that  the  Jews  were 


151 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


“If  the  project  is  still  unrealized,  the  cause  is 
easily  cognizable.  The  Jews  dare  not  think  of  the 
possibility  of  possessing  again  the  land  of  their 
fathers.  Have  we  not  opposed  to  their  wish  our 
Christian  veto?  Would  we  not  continually  molest 
the  legal  proprietor  when  he  will  have  taken  posses¬ 
sion  of  his  ancestral  land,  and  in  the  name  of  piety 
make  him  feel  that  his  ancestors  forfeited  the  title 
to  their  land  on  the  day  of  the  Crucifixion? 

“Our  stupid  Ultramontanism  has  destroyed  the 
possibility  of  a  regeneration  of  Judaea,  by  making  the 
present  of  the  Jewish  people  barren  and  unproduc¬ 
tive.  Had  the  city  of  Jerusalem  been  rebuilt  by 
means  of  Jewish  capital,  we  would  have  heard 
preachers  prophesying,  even  in  our  progressive  nine¬ 
teenth  century,  that  the  end  of  the  world  is  at  hand 
and  predictions  of  the  coming  of  the  Anti-Christ. 
Yes,  we  have  lived  to  see  such  a  state  of  affairs,  now 


moved  to  tears  when  he  announced  to  them  the  end  of  their 
suffering,  with  the  words  “The  time  of  the  return  approaches 
The  more  fortunate  Occidental  Jews  do  not  know  with  what 
longing  the  Jewish  masses  of  the  East  await  the  final  re¬ 
demption  from  the  two  thousand  year  exile.  They  know  not 
that  the  patriotic  Jew  cannot  suppress  his  cry  of  anguish  at 
the  length  of  the  exile,  even  in  the  midst  of  his  festive  songs, 
as,  for  instance,  the  patriotic  poem  which  is  read  on  Chanukah, 

closes  with  the  mournful  call:  #  .  . 

“For  salvation  is  delayed  for  us  and  there  is  no  end  to  the 

days  of  evil.” 

“They  asked  me,”  continued  my  friend,  “what  are  the  indica¬ 
tions  that  the  end  of  the  exile  is  approaching?”  These,  I 
answered,  “that  the  Turkish  and  the  papal  powers  are  on  the 

point  of  collapse.” 


152 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


that  Ultramontanism  has  made  its  last  stand  in  ora¬ 
torical  eloquence.  In  the  sacred  beehive  of  religion, 
we  still  hear  a  continuous  buzzing  of  those  insects 
who  would  rather  see  a  mighty  sword  in  the  hands 
of  the  barbarians,  than  greet  the  resurrection  of  na¬ 
tions  and  hail  the  revival  of  a  free  and  great  thought 
inscribed  on  their  banner.  This  is  undoubtedly  the 
reason  why  Israel  did  not  make  any  attempt  to  be¬ 
come  master  of  his  own  flocks,  why  the  Jews,  after 
wandering  for  two  thousand  years,  are  not  in  a  posi¬ 
tion  to  shake  the  dust  from  their  weary  feet.  The 
continuous,  inexorable  demands  that  would  be  made 
upon  a  Jewish  settlement,  the  vexatious  insults  that 
would  be  heaped  upon  them  and  which  would  finally 
degenerate  into  persecutions,  in  which  fanatic  Chris¬ 
tians  and  pious  Mohammedans  would  unite  in  broth¬ 
erly  accord — these  are  the  reasons,  more  potent  than 
the  rule  of  the  Turks,  that  have  deterred  the  Jews 
from  attempting  to  rebuild  the  Temple  of  Solomon, 
their  ancient  home,  and  their  State. 

“But  if  this  cause  explains  the  lack  of  courage  on 
the  part  of  patriotic  Jews,  we  cannot  refrain  from 
accusing  the  so-called  progressive  Jews  of  indifference 
to  the  fate  of  the  Jewish  people;  for  whenever  a  pro¬ 
ject  for  the  restoration  of  the  Jewish  State  is  being 
considered,  they  display  toward  it  a  naivete  that 
neither  does  credit  to  their  reasoning  power  nor  to 
their  heart.  The  explanations  offered  by  them  on 
such  occasions  are  inadmissible  both  from  a  moral 
and  from  a  political  point  of  view.  A  declaration, 
composed  by  the  representatives  of  the  progressive 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM  153 

Jews  at  their  meeting  in  Frankfort,  contains  the  fol¬ 
lowing  Article: 

“We  acknowledge  as  our  fatherland  only  the  land 
where  we  are  born  and  to  which  we  are  inseparably 
united  by  the  bonds  of  citizenship.”  10 

“No  member  of  the  Jewish  race  can  renounce  the 
incontestible  and  fundamental  right  of  his  people, 
without  at  the  same  time  denying  the  history  of  the 
Jews  and  his  own  ancestors.  Such  an  act  is  espe¬ 
cially  unseemly,  at  a  time  when  political  conditions 
in  Europe  will  not  only  not  obstruct  the  restoration 
of  a  Jewish  State,  but  will  rather  facilitate  its  reali¬ 
zation.  What  European  power  to-day  would  oppose 
the  plan  that  the  Jews,  united  through  a  Congress, 
should  buy  back  their  ancient  fatherland?  Who 
would  object  if  the  Jews  flung  to  decrepit  old  Turkey 
a  few  handfuls  of  gold,  and  said  to  her :  Give  me 
back  my  home  and  use  this  money  to  consolidate  the 
other  parts  of  your  tottering  empire?’ 

“No  objections  would  be  raised  to  the  realization 
of  such  a  plan,  and  Judaea  would  be  permitted  to 
extend  its  boundaries  from  Suez  to  the  harbor  of 
Smyrna,  including  the  entire  area  of  the  western 

10  I  do  not  know  to  which  declaration  the  author  refers.  It 
is  perhaps  to  the  one  of  the  Rabbinical  conference  which  took 
place  in  the  year  1845  at  Frankfort  and  which  accomplished 
as  much  as  a  similar  German  meeting  held  in  the  same  place 
a  few  years  later.  However,  the  declaration  referred  to  is  in 
perfect  accord  with  the  sentiments  of  the  German  progressive 
Jews.  There  was  not  a  voice  raised  among  them  in  behalf  of 
the  restoration  of  the  Jewish  nationality;  and  if  such  a  voice 
is  heard  from  other  quarters,  it  is  received  by  them  not  only 
with  indifference,  but  with  scorn. 


154 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


Lebanon  range.  For  we  will  not  be  eternally  engaged 
in  war;  the  time  must  come  when  this  wholesale 
massacre,  usually  accompanied  by  the  booming  of 
cannon,  will  be  condemned  by  humanity,  so  that  the 
nation  which  desires  conquest  in  addition  to  com¬ 
merce,  will  not  dare  to  carry  out  its  designs.  We 
must  therefore  prepare  and  break  new  ground  for  the 
peaceful  struggles  of  industry.  European  industry 
has  daily  to  search  for  new  markets  as  an  outlet  for 
its  products.  We  have  no  time  to  lose.  The  time 
has  arrived  when  it  is  imperative  to  call  the  ancient 
nations  back  to  life,  so  as  to  open  new  highways  and 
byways  for  European  civilization.” 

In  another  passage,  the  author  speaks  with  so  much 
enthusiasm,  love  and  reverence  for  the  Jews,  that 
what  he  says  overshadows  all  that  has  ever  been  said 
by  a  Jew  in  praise  of  his  own  people. 

“There  is  a  mysterious  power  which  rules  the 
destiny  of  humanity.  Once  the  hand  of  the  Infinite 
Power  has  signed  the  decree  of  a  nation  to  be  ban¬ 
ished  forever  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  the  fate 
of  that  nation  is  irrevocable.  But  when  we  see  a 
nation,  torn  from  its  cradle  in  its  early  childhood, 
and  after  having  tasted  all  the  bitterness  of  exile  is 
brought  back  to  its  land,  only  to  be  tossed  again 
into  the  wide  world;  and  that  nation,  during  the 
eighteen  centuries  of  its  wandering  has  displayed  such 
remarkable  powers  of  endurance,  suffering  age-long 
martyrdom  without  extinguishing  in  its  heart  the  fire 
of  patriotism,  then  we  must  admit  that  we  are  stand- 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


155 


in g  before  an  infinite  mystery,  unparalleled  in  the 
history  of  humanity.” 

In  these  few  words  there  is  concentrated  the  whole 
history  of  Israel. 

What  an  example!  What  a  race.  You  Roman 
conquerors  led  your  legions  in  battle  against  the 
already  ruined  Zion  and  drove  the  children  of  Israel 
out  of  their  ancestral  land.  Your  European,  Asiatic 
and  African  barbarians  lent  your  ear  to  superstition 
and  pronounced  your  curse  upon  them.  You  feudal 
kings  branded  the  Jews  with  the  mark  of  shame — the 
Jews,  who,  in  spite  of  all  your  persecutions,  supplied 
you  with  the  necessary  gold  wherewith  to  arm  your 
vassals  and  serfs  and  who  provided  your  markets 
with  goods.  You  grand  Inquisitors,  searched  among 
the  children  of  the  dispersed  people  of  Israel  for  your 
richest  victims,  with  whom  to  fill  your  prisons  and 
coffers,  and  in  order  to  feed  your  auto-da-fe’s — and 
you  revoked  the  edict  of  Nantes  11  and  drove  out  of 
the  land  the  remnant  that  had  escaped  the  destruction 
of  Apostolic  fanaticism.  And  finally,  you  modern 
nations  have  denied  these  indefatigable  workers  and 
industrious  merchants  civil  rights.  What  persecu¬ 
tions  !  What  tears !  What  blood  you  children  of 
Israel  have  shed  in  the  last  eighteen  hundred  years ! 
But  you  sons  of  Judaea,  in  spite  of  all  suffering  are 
still  here!  You  have  overcome  the  innumerable  ob- 

11  The  edict  of  Nantes  guaranteed  the  Protestants  of  France 
liberty  of  conscience,  freedom  of  worship  and  representation 
in  Parliament;  it  was  issued  by  Henry  IV  in  1593,  but  re¬ 
voked  by  Louis  XIV  in  1685. — Translator. 


156  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

stacks  which  the  hatred,  contempt,  fanaticism  and 
barbarism  of  the  centuries  have  placed  in  your  way. 
The  hand  of  the  Eternal  has  surely  guided  you. 

France  finally  freed  you.  On  the  eve  of  the  great 
world  epoch,  France,  while  shattering  its  own  chains, 
called  all  nations  and  also  you,  into  freedom.  You 
became  citizens  and  now  you  are  brothers.  The  year 
1789  was  the  first  step  in  the  process  of  rehabilita¬ 
tion.  Pursuing  its  mission,  liberation,12  the  eye  of 
France  searched  after  all  persecuted  races,  and  it 
found  you  in  your  ghetto  and  shattered  its  doors 
forever.13  France  invited  you  to  its  Chambers.  You 
participated  in  its  triumphs;  you  shared  its  happi¬ 
ness  and  its  reverses.  You  have  raised  your  voice 
on  the  day  of  council,  shouted  for  joy  at  our  vic- 

12  Under  the  short  Napoleonic  reign  over  Central  and 
Southern  Europe,  despotism  and  autocracy  were  crushed  every¬ 
where;  either  republics  or  constitutional  monarchies  were  sub¬ 
stituted,  and  the  Jews  were  granted  equal  rights,  which  were 
later  revoked  when  the  old  dynasties  were  restored  to  the 
throne. — Translator. 

13  The  old  Beneday,  who  was  still  alive  in  1842,  at  the  time 
of  the  publication  of  the  first  Bhenische  Zeitung  used  to  come, 
from  time  to  time,  to  the  office  of  that  paper  to  converse  with 
the  members  of  the  staff;  and  on  one  of  these  occasions  he 
told  us  the  story,  which  I  had  really  heard  before,  how  he,  at 
the  commission  of  the  first  French  Republic  had  laid  the  ax 
at  the  gates  of  the  Bonn  Ghetto.  Beneday  could  hardly  con¬ 
ceive  how  his  son  Jacob  could,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  be  a 
liberal  and  yet  unfriendly  toward  the  French.  I  comforted 
him  by  pointing  to  the  progressive  German  Jews,  who  in 
reality  have  to  thank  the  French  for  whatever  political  and 
civil  rights  they  possess  here  or  elsewhere  in  Germany,  and  yet 
rail,  in  company  with  the  Germans,  against  the  hereditary 

enemy.” 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


157 


tories  and  wept  at  our  defeats.  You  are  good  citizens 
and  devoted  brothers.  France  will  perhaps  be  to  you 
a  lighthouse  of  salvation,  a  rock  against  your  ene¬ 
mies,  who  are  also  the  enemies  of  our  modern  insti¬ 
tutions.  It  will  defend  you  against  the  libelers  of 
your  nationality,  your  character  and  your  religion. 

You  are  an  elemental  force  and  we  bow  our  heads 
before  you.  You  were  powerful  in  the  early  period 
of  your  history,  strong  even  after  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem,  and  mighty  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
when  there  were  only  two  dominant  powers — the 
Inquisition  and  its  Cross,  and  Piracy  with  its  Cres¬ 
cent.  You  have  escaped  destruction  in  your  long 
dispersion,  in  spite  of  the  terrible  tax  you  have  paid 
during  eighteen  centuries  of  persecution.  But  what 
is  left  of  your  nation  is  mighty  enough  to  rebuild  the 
gates  of  Jerusalem.  This  is  your  mission. 

Providence  would  not  have  prolonged  your  exist¬ 
ence  until  to-day,  had  it  not  reserved  for  you  the 
holiest  of  all  missions.  The  hour  has  struck  for  the 
resettlement  of  the  banks  of  the  Jordan.  The  his¬ 
torical  books  of  the  royal  prophets  can,  perhaps,  be 
written  again  only  by  you. 

A  great  calling  is  reserved  for  you:  to  be  a  living 
channel  of  communication  between  three  continents. 
You  should  be  the  bearers  of  civilization  to  the  primi¬ 
tive  people  of  Asia,  and  the  teachers  of  the  European 
sciences  to  which  your  race  has  contributed  so  much. 
You  should  be  the  mediators  between  Europe  and 
far  Asia,  open  the  roads  that  lead  to  India  and  China 
— those  unknown  regions  which  must  ultimately  be 


158  ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 

thrown  open  to  civilization.  You  will  come  to  the 
land  of  your  fathers  crowned  with  the  crown  of  age¬ 
long  martyrdom,  and  there,  finally,  you  will  be  com¬ 
pletely  healed  from  all  your  ills!  Your  capital  will 
again  bring  the  wide  stretches  of  barren  land  under 
cultivation ;  your  labor  and  industry  will  once  more 
turn  the  ancient  soil  into  fruitful  valleys,  reclaim  the 
flat  lands  from  the  encroaching  sands  of  the  desert, 
and  the  world  will  again  pay  its  homage  to  the  oldest 
of  peoples. 

The  time  has  arrived  for  you  to  reclaim,  either  by 
way  of  compensation  or  by  other  means,  your  ancient 
fatherland  from  Turkey,  which  has  devastated 
it  for  ages.  You  have  contributed  enough  to  the 
cause  of  civilization  and  have  helped  Europe  on  the 
path  of  progress,  to  make  revolutions  and  carry  them 
out  successfully.  You  must  henceforth  think  of 
yourselves,  of  the  valleys  of  Lebanon  and  the  plains 
of  Gennesareth. 

March  forward !  At  the  sight  of  your  rejuvena¬ 
tion,  our  hearts  will  beat  fast,  and  our  armies  will 

stand  by  you,  ready  to  help. 

March  forward,  Jews  of  all  lands!  The  ancient 
fatherland  of  yours  is  calling  you,  and  we  will  be 

proud  to  open  its  gates  for  you. 

March  forward,  ye  sons  of  the  martyrs !  The  har¬ 
vest  of  experience  which  you  have  accumulated  in 
your  long  exile,  will  help  to  bring  again  to  Israel 
the  splendor  of  the  Davidic  days  and  rewrite  that 
part  of  history  of  which  the  monoliths  of  Semiramis 
are  the  only  witness. 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


159 


March  forward,  ye  noble  hearts!  The  day  on 
which  the  Jewish  tribes  return  to  their  fatherland 
will  be  epoch-making  in  the  history  of  humanity.  Oh, 
how  will  the  East  tremble  at  your  coming!  How 
quickly,  under  the  influence  of  labor  and  industry, 
will  the  enervation  of  the  people  vanish,  in  the  land 
where  voluptuousness,  idleness  and  robbery  have  held 
sway  for  thousands  of  years. 

You  will  become  the  moral  stay  of  the  East.  You 
have  written  the  Book  of  books.  Become,  then,  the 
educators  of  the  wild  Arabian  hordes  and  the  African 
peoples.  Let  the  ancient  wisdom  of  the  East,  the 
revelations  of  the  Zend,  the  Vedas,  as  well  as  the 
more  modern  Koran  and  the  Gospels,  group  them¬ 
selves  around  your  Bible.  They  will  all  become  puri¬ 
fied  from  every  superstition  and  all  will  proclaim 
alike  the  principles  of  freedom,  humanity,  peace  and 
unity.  You  are  the  triumphal  arch  of  the  future 
historical  epoch,  under  which  the  great  covenant  of 
humanity  will  be  written  and  sealed  in  your  presence 
as  the  witnesses  of  the  past  and  future.  The  Biblical 
traditions  which  you  will  revive,  will  also  sanctify 
anew  our  Occidental  society  and  destroy  the  weed 
of  materialism  together  with  its  roots. 

And  when  you  shall  have  made  this  wonderful 
progress,  remember,  ye  sons  of  Israel,  remember 
Modern  France  which,  from  the  moment  of  its  re¬ 
birth,  has  loved  you  continually  and  has  never  wearied 
of  defending  you. 


TWELFTH  LETTER 

The  beginning  of  the  end — Solidarity  of  the  Jews 
Philanthropic  illusions — The  social  animal  king¬ 
dom — The  nurses  of  progress — The  faithful  watch¬ 
men  of  the  sacred  sepulchre  of  Jewish  nationality 
— The  last  catastrophe. 

It  seems  that  extracts  from  the  French  pamphlet 
which  I  quoted  to  you,  have  awakened  in  you  new 
thoughts.  You  think  that  the  Christian  nations  will 
certainly  not  object  to  the  restoration  of  the  Jewish 
State,  for  they  will  thereby  rid  their  respective  coun¬ 
tries  of  a  foreign  population  which  is  a  thorn  in  their 
side.  Not  only  Frenchmen,  but  Germans  and  Eng¬ 
lishmen,  have  expressed  themselves  more  than  once  in 
favor  of  the  return  of  the  Jews  to  Palestine.  You 
quote  an  Englishman  who  endeavored  to  prove,  by 
Biblical  evidence,  the  ultimate  return  of  the  Jews  to 
Palestine  and  simultaneously  also  the  conversion  of 
the  Jews  to  Christianity.  Another  Englishman  at¬ 
tempts  to  prove  that  the  present  English  dynasty  is 
directly  descended  from  the  house  of  David  and  that 
the  stone  which  plays  such  an  important  role  in  the 
coronation  of  English  kings  is  the  same  on  which 
Jacob’s  head  rested  when  he  dreamt  of  the  famous 
ladder.  A  third  magnanimously  offers  all  the  Eng- 
)  160 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


161 


lish  ships  for  the  purpose  of  conveying  to  Palestine, 
free  of  charge,  all  the  Jews  who  want  to  return  there. 
These  sentiments,  however,  seem  to  be,  according  to 
you,  only  a  milder  form  of  the  desire,  which  in  for¬ 
mer  ages  expressed  itself  in  frequent  banishments  of 
the  Jews  from  Christian  lands,  for  which  mildness 
our  people  ought  to  be  thankful.  On  the  other  hand, 
you  see  in  such  projects  only  a  piece  of  folly  which, 
in  its  final  analysis,  leads  either  to  religious  or  secu¬ 
lar  insanity,  and  should  not  be  taken  into  considera¬ 
tion.  Such  desires,  moreover,  if  they  come  from 
pious  Christians,  would  be  opposed  by  all  Jews.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  pious  Jews  were  the  projectors, 
all  Christians  would  object  to  the  restoration;  for  as 
the  latter  would  only  consent  to  a  return  to  Pales¬ 
tine  on  condition  that  the  ancient  sacrificial  cult  be 
reintroduced  in  the  New  Jerusalem,  so  would  the 
former  give  its  assistance  to  the  plan,  only  on  con¬ 
dition  that  we  Jews  would  bring  our  national  religion 
as  a  sacrifice  to  Christianity  at  the  “Holy  Sepul¬ 
chre.”  And  thus,  you  conclude,  all  the  national  as¬ 
pirations  of  the  Jews  must  inevitably  founder  on  the 
rock  of  differences  of  opinion. 

Now  if  rigid  Christian  dogma  and  inflexible  Jewish 
orthodoxy  could  never  be  revived  by  the  living  cur¬ 
rent  of  history,  they  would  certainly  place  an  insur¬ 
mountable  obstacle  to  the  realization  of  our  patri¬ 
otic  aspirations.  The  thought  of  repossessing  our 
ancient  fatherland  can,  therefore,  be  taken  under 
serious  consideration,  only  when  this  rigidity  of 
orthodox  Jews  and  Christians  alike,  will  have  re- 


162 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


laxed.  And  it  is  beginning  to  relax  already,  not  only 
with  the  progressive  elements,  but  even  with  pious 
Jews  and  Christians.  Moreover,  the  Talmud,  which 
is  the  corner-stone  of  modern  Jewish  orthodoxy,  long 
ago  counseled  obedience  to  the  dictates  of  life. 

If  Jewish  Nationalism  is  a  live  movement,  it  will 
not  be  deterred  by  any  doubts  that  may  arise  from 
devoting  its  energy  toward  obtaining  political  regen¬ 
eration.  Though  the  time  “when  the  wolf  shall  dwell 
with  the  lamb”  has  not  yet  arrived,  the  ruling  ma j  or- 
ity  and  the  oppressed  minority  have  both  alike  lost 
their  wolfish  appetite  and  sheepish  patience.  Re¬ 
ligious  toleration  has  become  a  more  general  article 
of  creed  than  any  other  dogma.  Besides,  I  always 
think,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  of  the  future  cult 
of  all  regenerated  nations  as  being  different  in  form 
from  the  present  religious  cults,  which  have  come 
down  to  us  from  a  time  when  folk  individualities  were 
repressed.  And  finally,  I  must  emphasize  it  again, 
our  future  religious  worship,  like  those  of  other  na¬ 
tions,  will  not  precede  the  regeneration  but  follow  it. 
The  main  problem  of  the  Jewish  national  movement 
is  not  of  a  religious  nature  but  centers  around  one 
point,  namely,  on  how  to  awaken  the  patriotic  senti¬ 
ments  in  the  hearts  of  our  progressive  Jews,  and  how 
to  liberate  the  Jewish  masses,  by  means  of  this  patri¬ 
otism,  from  a  spirit-deadening  formalism.  If  we 
succeed  in  this  beginning,  then  no  matter  how  difficult 
the  practical  realization  of  our  plan  may  be,  the 
difficulties  will  be  overcome  by  experience  itself.  It 
is  only  when  we  find  that  the  Jewish  heart  is  dead, 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


163 


that  the  Jews  are  no  more  capable  of  patriotic  inspi¬ 
ration,  that  we  shall  have  to  despair  of  our  hope 
which,  as  every  great  historical  ideal,  cannot  be  real¬ 
ized  without  a  tremendous  struggle. 

The  Jews  have  enough  common  sense,  in  spite  of 
misunderstood  enlightenment  and  orthodoxy,  not  to 
be  misled  by  religious  haziness  and  fanaticism  which 
have  no  basis  in  the  present  life.  But  it  is  just  this 
sober  sense  of  reality  that  our  race  possesses  in  a 
high  degree,  which  will  finally  win  over  those  of  our 
brethren,  whether  progressive  or  orthodox,  who  still 
possess  a  Jewish  heart,  to  the  national  cause  which 
has  its  roots  deep  in  the  practical  soil  of  reality. 

The  objections  of  progressive  Jews  to  the  restora¬ 
tion  of  the  Jewish  State  have  their  ultimate  ground, 
not  in  that  spiritual  education  which  does  not  shrink 
from  the  difficulties  lying  in  the  path  of  a  great  work, 
nor  calculates  beforehand  the  amount  of  sacrifice 
required  in  the  realization  of  the  same,  but  they  rest 
in  the  moral  and  intellectual  narrow-mindedness  which 
is  unable  to  rise  to  a  high  humanitarian  standpoint, 
from  which  one  can  view  the  depth  of  the  misfortune 
of  the  people  as  well  as  the  means  of  their  salvation. 
The  Jewish  religion,  thought  Heine,  and  with  him  all 
the  enlightened  Jews,  is  more  of  a  misfortune  than  a 
religion.  But  in  vain  do  the  progressive  Jews  per¬ 
suade  themselves  that  they  can  escape  this  misfortune 
through  enlightenment  or  conversion.  Every  Jew  is, 
whether  he  wishes  it  or  not,  solidly  united  with  the 
entire  nation;  and  only  when  the  Jewish  people  will 
be  freed  from  the  burden  which  it  has  borne  so  hero- 


164 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


ically  for  thousands  of  years,  will  the  burden  of  Juda¬ 
ism  be  removed  from  the  shoulders  of  these  progres¬ 
sive  Jews,  who  will  ultimately  form  only  a  small 
minority.  We  will  all  then  carry  the  yoke  of  the 
“Kingdom  of  Heaven”  until  the  end. 

At  the  height  of  the  movement  of  enlightenment, 
when  everybody  was  intoxicated  by  it,  people  could 
be  easily  fascinated  by  the  illusion  that  it  is  best  for 
the  entire  Jewish  people  to  surrender  its  national 
religion  and  devote  itself  to  humanitarianism,  a  cult 
which,  according  to  them,  was  destined  to  absorb 
Judaism  as  well  as  all  individual  life.  To-day,  even 
the  most  superficial  rationalist  cannot  cherish  such 
a  philanthropic  illusion.  Though  lacking  a  deeper 
conception  of  life,  of  Nature  and  history,  the  his¬ 
torical  movement  among  our  contemporary  Jews  has 
accomplished  its  purpose  of  opening  the  eyes  of  the 
rationalists ;  for  even  in  the  Occident,  where  the  Jews 
are  closely  united  to  the  general  culture  by  a  thou¬ 
sand  bonds,  the  injury  done  to  the  ancient  Jewish 
cult  by  enlightenment  is  slight. 

Even  to-day,  the  great  majority  of  Occidental 
Jews  pay  homage  to  their  ancient  religion.  Neither 
emancipation  nor  Christian  proselytism,  with  its  bait 
of  material  advantages,  has  succeeded  in  estranging 
the  majority  of  Jews  from  their  traditions.  On  the 
contrary,  there  have  appeared  of  late,  even  among 
those  who  were  formerly  estranged  from  Judaism, 
men  who  display  strong  sympathies  for  the  ancient 
Jewish  mode  of  life.  The  leveling  tendencies  of  the 
assimilationists  have  remained  and  will  always  re- 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


165 


main  without  influence  on  those  Jews  who  constitute 
the  great  Jewish  masses. 

The  masses  are  never  moved  to  progress  by  mere 
abstract  conceptions ;  the  springs  of  action  lie  far 
deeper  than  even  the  socialist  revolutionaries  think. 
With  the  Jews,  more  than  with  other  nations  which, 
though  oppressed,  yet  live  on  their  own  soil,  all  polit¬ 
ical  and  social  progress  must  necessarily  be  preceded 
by  national  independence.  A  common,  native  soil 
is  a  primary  condition,  if  there  is  to  be  introduced 
among  the  Jews  better  and  more  progressive  rela¬ 
tions  between  Capital  and  Labor.  The  social  man, 
just  as  the  social  plant  and  animal,  needs  for  his 
growth  and  development  a  wide,  free  soil ;  without  it, 
he  sinks  to  the  status  of  a  parasite,  which  feeds  at 
the  expense  of  others.  The  parasitic  way  of  exist¬ 
ence  has  played  an  important  role  in  the  development 
of  human  history  and  is  by  no  means  restricted  to  the 
Jews.  As  long  as  science  and  industry  were  not  suffi¬ 
ciently  developed,  the  land  in  the  possession  of  any 
nation  was  never  large  enough  to  maintain  the  entire 
population ;  and  the  nations  were  therefore  forced, 
either  to  make  war  one  upon  the  other  and  thus 
acquire  slaves,  or  to  divide  their  own  population  into 
ruling  and  serving  classes.  But  this  regime,  which 
was  based  upon  the  exploitation  of  men,  collapsed  as 
soon  as  modern  science  and  industry  began  to  domi¬ 
nate  the  world. 

The  civilized  nations  are  at  present  making  prep¬ 
arations  for  a  common  exploitation  of  Nature.  This 
will  be  carried  on  by  means  of  labor  based  on  scien- 


166 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


tific  principles,  all  social  parasites  being  excluded. 
They  are  preparing  themselves  for  the  new  era 
through  struggles  for  free  national  soils,  by  attempts 
at  abolishing  race  and  class  rule,  by  endeavoring  to 
organize  an  Association  and  by  the  cooperation  of 
all  the  forces  of  production.  In  this  Association, 
the  antagonism  between  capitalistic  speculation  and 
productive  labor,  as  well  as  the  contrast  between 
philosophic  speculation  and  scientific  work,  will 
simultaneously  disappear.  I  know  well  that  the  need 
of  wholesome  and  just  labor  conditions,  which  should 
be  based  solely  on  the  exploitation  of  Nature  by 
man,  is  also  strongly  felt  in  Jewry.  I  know  of  the 
great  efforts  which  are  being  exerted  on  the  part  of 
the  Jews  to  train  our  younger  generation  as  useful 
laborers.  But  I  know  also  that  the  Jews  in  exile,  at 
least  the  majority  of  them,  cannot  devote  themselves 
successfully  to  productive  labor;  in  the  first  place, 
because  they  lack  the  most  necessary  condition — an 
ancestral  soil;  and,  secondly,  because  they  cannot 
assimilate  with  the  peoples  among  whom  they  live 
without  at  the  same  time  denying  their  national  re¬ 
ligion  and  tradition.  Those  commendable  efforts  to 
improve  the  condition  of  Jewish  labor  will,  therefore, 
while  they  indirectly  cause  the  destruction  of  the 
Jewish  cult,  be  as  fruitless,  on  the  whole,  as  the 
endeavors  of  the  Reform  movement,  which  leads 
directly  to  the  same  results.  In  exile,  the  Jewish 
people  cannot  be  regenerated.  Reform  or  philan¬ 
thropy  can  only  bring  it  to  apostasy  and  to  nothing 
else,  but  in  this  no  reformer,  not  even  a  tyrant,  will 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


167 


ever  succeed.  The  Jewish  people  will  participate  in 
the  great  historical  movement  of  present-daj  human¬ 
ity  only  when  it  will  have  its  own  fatherland.  As 
long  as  the  great  Jewish  masses  remain  in  their  low 
position,  even  the  relatively  few  Jews  who  have  sur¬ 
rendered  their  national  traditions,  in  order  to  escape 
the  fate  of  the  Jewish  people,  will  be  more  painfully 
affected  by  the  position  of  the  Jews  than  the  masses, 
who  feel  themselves  only  unfortunate  but  not  de¬ 
graded.  Hence,  no  Jew,  whether  orthodox  or  not, 
can  conscientiously  refrain  from  cooperating  with 
the  rest  for  the  elevation  of  the  entire  Jewry.  Every 
Jew,  even  the  converted,  should  cling  to  the  cause  and 
labor  for  the  regeneration  of  Israel. 

If  one  appreciates  fully  the  infinitely  tragic  role 
which  the  Jewish  people  has  thus  far  played  in  his¬ 
tory,  he  must  also  inevitably  perceive  the  only  way 
that  will  bring  salvation  to  our  misery.  This  solu¬ 
tion  is  at  present  not  as  impractical  as  it  may  look 
at  first  sight.  It  is  in  accordance  with  the  sympa¬ 
thies  of  the  French  people  and  with  the  interests  of 
French  politics,  that  after  France’s  victorious  armies 
shall  have  overthrown  the  modern  Nebuchadnezzar, 
France  will  extend  its  work  of  redemption  also  to  the 
Jewish  nation.  It  is  to  the  interest  of  France  to  see 
that  the  road  leading  to  India  and  China  should  be 
settled  by  a  people  which  will  be  loyal  to  the  cause 
of  France  to  the  end,  in  order  that  it  may  fulfil  the 
historical  mission  which  has  fallen  to  it  as  a  legacy 
from  the  great  Revolution.  But  is  there  any  other 
nation  more  adapted  to  carry  out  this  mission  than 


m 


Home  and  Jerusalem 


Israel,  which  was  appointed  for  the  same  mission 
from  the  beginning  of  its  history? 

“Frenchmen  and  Jews !”  I  hear  you  exclaim.  “If 
so,  then  the  Christian  German  reactionaries  were 
right  in  their  denunciations  of  the  Jews !”  Yes,  my 
dear  friend,  the  animal  instinct  which  scents  the 
enemy  in  the  distance  is  always  infallible.  Reaction 
has  everywhere  recognized  its  mortal  enemy  in  those 
who  stand  midway  between  reaction  and  revolution 
and  who  act  as  the  midwife  of  progress,  the  giant 
who  is  to  smite  reaction  over  its  head.  For  it  is  a  law 
of  organic  and  social  life  history,  that  the  mediate 
being  whose  existence  is  limited  to  the  transition 
epoch,  should  pave  the  way  from  the  imperfect  to 
the  more  perfect  and  higher  scales  of  life. 

Frenchmen  and  Jews!  It  seems  that  in  all  things 
they  were  created  for  one  another.  They  resemble 
one  another  in  their  humane  and  national  aspirations, 
and  differ  only  in  such  qualities  as  can  only  be  com¬ 
plemented  by  another  nation,  but  which  are  never 
united  in  one  and  the  same  people.  The  French  peo¬ 
ple  excel  in  alertness,  in  the  humanistic  and  sympa¬ 
thetic  quality  to  assimilate  all  elements ;  the  Jews,  on 
the  other  hand,  possess  more  ethical  seriousness  than 
the  French,  and  in  meeting  other  types,  the  Jew  will 
rather  impress  his  stamp  on  his  environment  than  be 
molded  by  it.  The  French  can  rule  the  world  be¬ 
cause  they  absorbed  the  best  of  the  entire  human 
race.  The  Jews  can  only  be  masters  of  their  own 
flock,  and  with  the  holy  fire  which  they  have  kindled 
in  their  own  midst,  they  will  warm  and  enlighten  a 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


169 


world  composed  of  heterogeneous  elements,  and  thus 
prevent  this  world  from  disintegrating  into  its  ele¬ 
ments  and  relapsing  into  the  chaos  out  of  which  it 
was  raised  once  before  by  Judaism. 

The  generous  help  which  France  has  extended  to 
civilized  peoples  toward  the  restoration  of  their  na¬ 
tionality,  will  be  remembered  longer  by  our  nation 
than  by  any  other.  How  easily  will  we  come  to  an 
understanding  with  this  humane  French  people  about 
our  religion  and  its  sacred  places  in  Palestine.  But 
matters  have  not  gone  so  far  yet.  The  Jewish  people 
must  first  show  itself  worthy  of  the  regeneration  of 
its  historical  cult;  it  must  first  feel  the  necessity  of 
a  national  restoration  if  it  would  reach  that  point. 
Until  then  we  need  not  think  about  building  the 
Temple;  we  must  win  the  heart  of  our  brethren  for 
the  great  work  which  will  finally  bring  eternal  glory 
to  the  Jewish  nation  and  salvation  to  humanity. 

For  Jewish  colonization  on  the  road  to  India  and 
China,  there  is  no  lack,  either  of  Jewish  laborers  or 
of  Jewish  talent  and  capital.  Let  only  the  germ  be 
planted  under  the  protection  of  the  European  pow¬ 
ers,  and  the  tree  of  a  new  life  will  spring  forth  by 
itself  and  bear  excellent  fruit. 

You  smile  at  my  innocent  belief  in  Jewish  patriot¬ 
ism.  You  have  undoubtedly  read  the  Ghetto  Scenes 
and  you  will  possibly  remind  me  of  the  hero,  Mendel 
Wilna,  who  possessed  a  fixed  idea  to  persuade  the 
Rothschilds  to  devote  their  capital  and  energy  to  the 
rebuilding  of  the  Holy  City  and  Temple,  but  who 
only  succeeded  in  winning  over  a  child  to  his  pious 


170 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


belief.  The  child,  when  he  grew  up  and  attended  the 
University  became  so  wise  that  he  concluded  that 
only  children  and  fools  can  dream  of  rebuilding  Jeru¬ 
salem.  By  quoting  this  episode,  you  wish  to  demon¬ 
strate  that  the  Jewish  poet  did  not  see  any  deeper 
meaning  in  the  patriotic  feeling  of  pious  Jews  than 
considering  them  merely  as  a  kind  of  Jewish  Christ¬ 
mas  trees,  able  to  amuse  only  little  children  and 
elderly  fools.  All  this,  dearest  friend,  is  true,  but 
it  applies  only  to  the  modern  poet  who  is  influenced 
by  the  Germanic  spirit  and  not  to  a  poet  like  Judah 
Halevi,  who  poured  out  his  heart’s  blood  in  his  Jew¬ 
ish  poetry.  Halevi,  actuated  by  longing  for  the  land 
of  his  dreams,  grasped  the  pilgrim’s  staff,  only  to  find 
a  grave  for  himself  in  his  beloved  land.  Nor  does 
the  poet’s  description  characterize  real  Jewish  life. 
You  certainly  remember  the  proverb:  “Children  and 
fools  tell  the  truth.”  The  thought  which  inspired  the 
nervous  Mendel  Wilna  and  little  Moischele,  has  been 
the  fundamental  thought  of  all  pious  Jews  from  the 
time  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  until  the  present 
day.  And  there  are  such  Jews — let  it  not  worry  Mr. 
Kompert,  even  among  the  Rothschild  brothers. 

But  you  do  not  need  to  overlook  the  fact  that 
Kompert  puts  the  denial  of  Jewish  nationality  into 
the  mouth  of  a  student  who,  when  doubting  the  regen¬ 
eration  of  the  Jewish  people,  only  reflects  the  scep¬ 
tical  spirit  of  the  age.  What  progressive  Jew,  espe¬ 
cially  in  Germany,  would  have  dared  within  recent 
years  to  declare  himself  for  the  restoration  of  our 
nation  and  face  his  own  friends,  who  would  undoubt- 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


171 


edly  have  declared  him  mad?  In  addition,  I  wish  to 
remark  that  Kompert  bestowed  upon  the  Jewish  stu¬ 
dent,  who  is  theoretically  indifferent,  but  practically 
devoted  to  the  Jewish  nation, — not  without  purpose 
— a  Bohemian  friend  who  is  theoretically  inspired  by 
the  example  of  Huss  and  Zizka,  but  who  becomes 
ultimately  a  well-to-do  monk,  and  exchanges  the  cup 
and  sword  for  the  cross  and  incense  bowl.  I  do  not 
find,  therefore,  in  Kompert’s  description  of  the  pro¬ 
gressive  Jews,  any  more  of  that  extreme  indifference 
with  which,  until  recently,  a  great  part  of  German 
Jewry  was  charged.  To-day,  as  I  have  said,  we  can¬ 
not  accuse  them  of  it  without  reserve.  Remember, 
dear  friend,  that  it  was  you  who  criticised  my  severe 
judgment  of  the  progressive  German  Jews,  a  criti¬ 
cism  to  which  I  must  do  justice  now.  I  have  adapted 
the  wholesome  reaction  of  Jewish  patriotism  and 
asserted  it  in  face  of  an  extreme  indifference  which  had 
its  seat  more  in  “fashion”  and  in  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
than  in  the  heart  of  the  people ;  and  finally  it  struck 
root.  The  longing  for  the  land  of  our  forefathers 
and  the  desire  to  return  there  which  is  so  strongly 
displayed  by  our  pious  brethren,  who  even  in  our 
days  visit  the  Holy  Land  in  order  to  be  buried  there, 
has  finally  affected  even  the  heart  of  our  progressive 
Jews.  The  frequent  journeys  to  Jerusalem,  the  sup¬ 
port  given  to  our  brethren  there,  the  help  extended 
to  the  educational  and  charitable  institutions  in  Pal¬ 
estine,  all  these  do  not  come  only  from  orthodox 
Jews.  These  earnest  and  lasting  endeavors  to  help 
our  brethren  in  the  Orient  show  that  to-day  there  is 


172 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


no  lack  of  good  will  among  all  classes  of  Jews,  to 
alleviate  the  misery  of  their  brethren  in  the  Holy 
Land.  This  will  need  only  to  ripen  in  the  formation 
of  a  plan  to  carry  out  the  great  patriotic  work. 

In  Jerusalem,  as  everywhere,  our  Jewish  philan¬ 
thropists  are  confronted  with  insurmountable  diffi¬ 
culties  whenever  they  wish  to  solve  the  historical  mis¬ 
fortune  of  our  brethren  by  means  of  charitable  insti¬ 
tutions  and  distributions  of  alms,  or  when  they  ex¬ 
pect  to  introduce  moral-spiritual  progress  among  the 
Oriental  Jews  by  means  of  theoretical  educational 
doctrines,  without  any  social  basis.  The  acquisition 
of  a  common  ancestral  soil,  the  organization  of  the 
work  on  a  legal  basis,  the  founding  of  Jewish  soci¬ 
eties  of  agriculture,  industry  and  commerce  on  the 
Mosaic,  i.e.,  social  principles,  these  are  the  founda¬ 
tions  on  which  Oriental  Jewry  will  rise  again,  and  in 
its  rise,  will  rekindle  the  glimmering  fire  of  the  old 
Jewish  patriotism  and  light  the  way  to  a  new  life  for 
the  Jewry  of  the  entire  world.  On  the  common 
ground  of  Jewish  patriotism,  all  Jewish  classes  will 
meet,  orthodox  and  progressive,  rich  and  poor.  They 
will  recognize  themselves  as  the  descendants  of  those 
heroes  who  fought  the  mightiest  and  the  most  civ¬ 
ilized  nations  of  antiquity :  the  Egyptians,  Assyrians, 
Greeks  and  Romans,  and  succeeded  in  carrying  on 
their  struggle  to  the  very  end  of  the  ancient  world, 
which  they  alone  survived.  They  will  look  upon 
themselves  as  children  of  that  race  which,  unlike  any 
other  people  of  history,  has  suffered  a  two  thousand 
year  martyrdom,  and  which  has  always  carried  aloft 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM  173 

the  banner  of  nationality,  namely,  the  Book  of  the 
Law. 

I  will  have  to  interrupt  our  correspondence  for  the 
present,  in  order  to  quote  to  you  from  a  Hebrew 
work  recently  published  by  an  extremely  pious 
scholar.  The  author,  after  thoroughly  discussing 
the  question  of  Jewish  Nationalism  from  a  Talmudic 
point  of  view,  arrives  at  the  same  results  that  the 
Christian  Frenchman  reached  in  his  brochure  A  New 
Oriental  Question ,  and  to  which  I  heartily  subscribe 
in  all  detail.  I  will  cite  to  you  a  few  lines  from  this 
work,  as  I  have  done  in  the  case  of  the  French 
pamphlet.  The  author  closes  his  work  with  the  fol¬ 
lowing  words  : 

“Even  if  the  time  of  Grace  has  not  yet  come,  when 
we  should  think  of  erecting  an  altar  to  the  Lord  in 
Zion,  even  if  we  cannot  expect  to  win  the  consent  of 
the  Sultan,  the  following  proposal  is  still  practical, 
especially  at  a  time  when  under  God’s  Providence, 
there  have  arisen  in  Israel  a  number  of  men  who  pos¬ 
sess  great  political  influence  or  rule,  by  virtue  of 
their  wealth,  men  like  Montefiore,  Albert  Cohn, 
Rothschild,  Fould,  and  others.  These  men  are  Jew¬ 
ish  princes  such  as  the  Jewish  people  has  not  had 
since  the  dispersion.  These  should  organize  a  Soci¬ 
ety  for  the  colonization  of  Palestine,  a  Chebra  Eretz 
N osheveth.  A  large  number  of  the  rich  and  respected 
Jews  of  all  parts  of  the  world  will  undoubtedly  join 
them.  The  program  of  the  organization  may  include 
the  following  activities : 

“a.  First,  it  should  raise  a  fund  sufficient  to  buy 


174 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


as  many  towns,  fields  and  vineyards  in  the  Holy  Land 
as  possible.  Let  the  desert  turn  into  the  Lebanon 
and  the  hilly  places  to  fruit-bearing  plains,  and  the 
desert  shall  again  blossom  like  a  lily  and  bring  forth 
fruit  like  the  field  blessed  by  God.  And  thus,  gradu¬ 
ally,  the  Society  will  acquire  hills,  and  dales,  and 
fields,  and  villages,  which  it  will  in  time  rent  out  to 
the  colonists.” 

“b.  Jews  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  espe¬ 
cially  from  Russia,  Poland  and  Germany,  should  be 
brought  over  by  the  Society  and  be  settled  in  Pales¬ 
tine.  Those  who  are  not  practical  farmers  should  be 
taught  under  the  direction  of  experienced  teachers, 
employed  by  the  Company.  Rut  those  who  are  ac¬ 
quainted  with  agriculture  should  be  granted  a  tract 
of  land  free  of  rent  for  a  time,  until  they  are  able  to 
pay  the  company  a  fixed  amount  of  rent.  During 
the  first  years,  the  company  should,  in  addition,  make 
loans  of  money  to  the  indigent  farmers  until  such 
time  as  the  land  begins  to  yield  its  harvests. 

“c.  Thirdly,  a  police  system  must  be  established 
by  this  Society,  to  protect  the  colonists  from  the 
attacks  of  the  Bedouins,  and  to  maintain  law  and 
order  in  the  land  in  general. 

“d.  Finally,  there  should  be  opened  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Society  an  agricultural  school  where 
Jewish  youths  could  receive  an  adequate  preparation 
for  the  life  of  a  Palestinian  farmer.  This  school,  in 
which  also  other  sciences  will  be  taught  and  a  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  Jewish  religion  imparted,  can  be  estab¬ 
lished  either  in  Palestine  or  in  any  of  the  lands  of 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


175 


the  exile ;  but  it  must  be  located  in  a  land  where  wine 
and  oil  and  other  fruits  of  the  Holy  Land  are  raised, 
so  that  the  pupils  of  the  school  may  be  prepared  to 
undertake  agriculture  in  Palestine. 

“God  in  his  grace  will  then  support  us,  and  we 
will,  though  small  in  our  beginning,  continually  grow 
and  come  more  and  more  into  the  possession  of  the 
Holy  Land,  as  the  prophet  foresaw.  We,  however, 
must  make  the  beginning,  as  I  have  proved  by  numer¬ 
ous  citations  from  Talmud  and  Midrash.” 

Thus  far  Rabbi  Kalisher,  of  Thorn. 

Was  I  not  right  when  I  praised  the  practical  sense 
of  our  people  to  you  and  asserted  that  pious  Jews 
will  j  oin  hands  with  the  enlightened  on  the  common 
ground  of  Jewish  Nationalism?  From  another  source 
we  are  told,  that  last  December  a  meeting  was  held 
in  Australia,  which  was  attended  by  many  Christian 
and  Jewish  notables,  and  where  resolutions  similar  in 
spirit  to  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  our  French¬ 
man  and  the  learned  rabbi  were  proposed  to  a  large 
assembly  and  unanimously  adopted.1 

And  thus  not  only  Jews  of  different  lands  and  dif¬ 
ferent  grades  of  education,  but  most  Christian  de¬ 
nominations  and  different  peoples  concur  in  the  desire 
to  restore  our  people  to  its  national  heritage.  And 
the  most  remarkable  thing  about  it  is  that  they  all 
agree  on  the  same  means  to  the  end.  If  I  still  needed 
corroboration  for  the  convictions  arrived  at  after 
years  of  study  and  life  experience,  I  should  find  it  in 
the  concurring  opinions  of  different  men  and  peoples, 
i  See  Note  X  at  end  of  book. 


176 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


who  having  started  from  different  points  of  view, 
have  arrived  at  the  same  results.  I  already  foresee 
the  organization  of  the  Society  proposed  by  the 
pious  Jewish  patriot,  and  its  ultimate  settling  of 
the  Holy  Land  with  Jewish  colonists  under  the  pro¬ 
tection  of  the  Western  civilized  nations.  When  the 
Jewish  situation  in  Palestine  is  once  for  all  adjusted 
under  the  protection  of  the  law,  and  on  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  labor,  there  will  arise  in  the  Holy  Land,  as 
in  Germany  and  other  European  countries,  universi¬ 
ties  conducted  by  able  scholars  whose  spirit  will  not 
conflict  with  but  harmonize  with  the  ancient  Jewish 
national  religion. 

The  faithful  watchmen  of  the  sacred  grave  of  our 
nationality,  in  spite  of  their  poverty,  do  not  wish  to 
accept  help  which  may  injure  the  ancient  Jewish  cult, 
and  our  Western  philanthropists  continue  to  com¬ 
plain  that  “you  cannot  do  anything  with  these  peo¬ 
ple.”  Indeed,  the  lack  of  system  and  the  wrong  plans 
of  the  philanthropists  lead  to  no  results ;  they  bring 
only  discord.  But  at  least,  do  not  blame  those  who 
would  rather  die  in  misery  in  the  Holy  Land  than 
give  up  some  precepts  of  their  ancient  religion. 
Blame  your  ignorance  of  the  needs  of  Jewry,  blame 
the  spirit  of  the  times,  when  you  can  show  so  little 
success  in  all  your  undertakings,  whether  in  the 
Orient  or  the  Occident. 

The  rigid  crust  of  orthodox  Jewry  will  melt  when 
the  spark  of  Jewish  patriotism,  now  smoldering  un¬ 
der  it,  is  kindled  into  a  sacred  fire  which  will  herald 
the  coming  of  the  Spring  and  the  resurrection  of 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


177 


our  nation  to  a  new  life.  On  the  other  hand,  Occi¬ 
dental  Judaism  is  surrounded  by  an  almost  indis- 
solvable  crust,  composed  of  the  dead  residue  of  the 
first  manifestation  of  the  modern  spirit,  from  the 
inorganic  chalk  deposit  of  an  extinct  rationalistic  en¬ 
lightenment.  This  crust  will  not  be  melted  by  the  fire 
of  Jewish  patriotism;  it  can  only  be  broken  by  an  ex¬ 
ternal  pressure  under  the  weight  of  which  everything 
which  has  no  future  must  give  up  its  existence.  In 
contradistinction  to  orthodoxy,  which  cannot  be  de¬ 
stroyed  by  an  external  force  without  at  the  same  time 
endangering  the  embryo  of  Jewish  Nationalism  that 
slumbers  within  it,  the  hard  covering  that  surrounds 
the  hearts  of  our  cultured  Jews  will  be  shattered  only 
by  a  blow  from  without,  one  that  world  events  are 
already  preparing;  and  which  will  probably  fall  in 
the  near  future.  The  old  frame-work  of  European 
Society,  battered  so  often  by  the  storms  of  revolu¬ 
tion,  is  cracking  and  groaning  on  all  sides.  It  can  no 
longer  stand  a  storm.  Those  who  stand  between  revo¬ 
lution  and  reaction,  the  mediators,  who  have  an  ap¬ 
pointed  purpose  to  push  modern  Society  on  its  path 
of  progress,  will  after  Society  becomes  strong  and 
progressive,  be  swallowed  up  by  it.  The  nurses  of 
progress,  “who  would  undertake  to  teach  the  Creator 
himself  wisdom,  prudence  and  economy;  those  car¬ 
riers  of  culture,  the  saviors  of  Society,  the  specu¬ 
lators  in  politics,  philosophy  and  religion,  will  not 
survive  the  last  storm.  And  along  with  the  other 
nurses  of  progress  our  Jewish  reformers  will  also 
close  their  ephemeral  existence.  On  the  other  hand, 


178 


ROME  AND  JERUSALEM 


the  Jewish  people,  along  with  other  historical  nations 
will,  after  this  last  catastrophe,  the  approach  of 
which  is  attested  by  unmistakable  signs  of  the  times, 
receive  its  full  rights  as  a  people. 

“Remember  the  days  of  old, 

Consider  the  years  of  many  generations; 

Ask  thy  father  and  he  will  tell  thee, 

Thy  elders  and  they  will  inform  thee. 

When  the  Most  High  divided  to  the  nations 
their  inheritance, 

When  he  separated  the  sons  of  Adam, 

He  set  the  bounds  of  the  peoples 
According  to  the  number  of  the  Children  of 
Israel.”  2 

Just  as  after  the  last  catastrophe  of  organic  life, 
when  the  historical  races  came  into  the  world’s  arena, 
there  came  their  division  into  tribes,  and  the  position 
and  role  of  the  latter  was  determined,  so  after  the 
last  catastrophe  in  social  life,  when  the  spirit  of 
humanity  shall  have  reached  its  maturity,  will  our 
people,  with  the  other  historical  people,  find  its  legiti¬ 
mate  place  in  universal  history. 

2  Deut.  xxxii,  7-8. 


EPILOGUE 


I.  Hellenes  and  Hebrews 

The  spiritual  views  of  a  man,  of  whatever  religion 
or  race,  are  the  products  of  his  particular  environ¬ 
ment.  But  the  roots  of  these  conceptions,  as  well 
as  those  of  social  life  in  general,  lie  in  the  great  web 
of  organic  life  with  which  the  social  life  is  closely 
and  inseparably  connected;  just  as  organic  life  itself 
is  connected  with  the  next  life  sphere,  the  cosmic. 

There  is  no  absolute  line  of  demarcation  between 
these  three  life  spheres,  just  as  there  is  no  difference 
between  the  material  and  the  spiritual  life.  The  three 
life  spheres  do,  however,  form  sharply  defined  grades 
or  epochs  within  the  unified  and  indivisible  universal 
life.  And  just  as  in  each  individual  life  sphere,  so 
also  in  the  totality  of  the  universal  life,  every  step 
toward  a  higher  grade  of  life  must  have  its  antece¬ 
dents  in  the  lower  grade.  Compared  with  the  higher 
order  of  life,  the  organic,  the  cosmic  life  sphere  ap¬ 
pears  lifeless,  especially  on  the  border  line  which  leads 
from  the  life  of  the  cosmic  bodies  to  that  of  the 
organisms.  Here,  on  the  surface  of  the  already 
cooled-off  and  stiffened  cosmic  bodies,  we  see  only  the 
dead  residue  of  the  cosmic  life  sphere,  out  of  which 
the  higher  organic  life  sphere  developed.  But  if  we 

179 


180 


EPILOGUE 


observe  the  life  of  the  cosmic  sphere  where  it  is  still 
being  generated  and  developed  in  universal  space,  we 
cannot  deny  to  it  attributes  of  the  divine  life — the  life 
that  is  so  beautifully  described  in  our  literature  in 
the  words :  “Last  in  creation,  first  in  thought.”  The 
remarkable  phenomena  which  were  observed  in  the 
modern  period,  such  as  the  splitting  and  other 
changes  going  on  in  the  double  comets  of  Bielasch 
and  Liais,  the  solidifying  of  the  cosmic  dust,  its  as¬ 
sumption  of  the  spheroid  form  and  spiral  movement, 
and  finally  the  grouping  of  these  bodies  into  sideral 
and  planetary  systems,  these  and  other  similar  phe¬ 
nomena  are  life  processes  which  can  be  as  little  ex¬ 
plained  by  an  external  and  one-sided  mechanical 
gravitation  theory,  as  the  process  of  the  division  of 
the  embryonic  cell  or  the  grouping  of  the  organs  in 
an  organism. 

Similarly,  the  human,  the  social  life  sphere,  rises 
infinitely  higher  than  the  organic,  but  is  in  nowise 
different  from  it;  just  as  organic  life  does  not  differ 
essentially  from  the  cosmic.  Here,  also,  we  meet,  on 
the  border-line  which  leads  from  the  organic  into  the 
social  life  sphere,  the  natural  organic  race  which, 
compared  with  the  higher  humanitarian  life,  is  spirit¬ 
less.  But  in  spite  of  this  appearance  of  spiritless¬ 
ness,  the  race  is  the  root  of  the  social  life  sphere, 
just  as  the  cosmic  bodies  were  the  soil  out  of  which 
the  organisms  grew. 

Social  life  is,  first  of  all,  a  product  of  the  life  of 
definite  races,  composed  of  different  folk-tribes,  each 
of  which  has  formed  its  life  course  in  a  typical  way. 


EPILOGUE 


181 


In  the  course  of  historical  development,  the  typical 
views  of  life  of  the  various  races  came  in  conflict 
with  one  another.  From  the  friction  of  those  anti¬ 
thetical  forces  were  generated  the  first  sparks  of  the 
spirit,  which  contain  the  germs,  out  of  which  higher 
and  more  harmonious  forms  of  life  will  spring  forth. 

The  unity  of  the  human  genus  is  a  conception 
developed  in  the  course  of  ages  through  historical 
activity,  and  not  an  original,  natural  idea,  inherent 
in  the  human  soul.  It  is  not  an  immediate  datum  of 
organic  life,  but  a  product  of  the  social  historical 
development  process.  It  has  the  variety  of  the  prim¬ 
itive  racial  tribes  as  its  antecedent,  their  struggle  as 
its  conditions,  and  their  final  harmonious  cooperation 
as  its  aim. 

The  thus  conceived  unity  of  mankind  presupposes 
a  plan  of  the  history  of  humanity,  namely,  that  the 
multiple  phenomena  of  social  life  will  finally  unite  and 
cooperate  in  a  not  less  harmonious  manner  than  the 
varied  and  different  phenomena  of  organic  and  cosmic 
life.  This  unified,  divine  plan  of  history  is,  at  pres¬ 
ent,  apparently  in  its  last  stage  of  historical  develop¬ 
ment.  But  in  antiquity,  when  the  nations  were  still 
in  the  grip  of  natural  life,  it  was  only  one  people, 
the  people  of  Israel,  which,  thanks  to  its  particular 
genius,  was  able  to  perceive  the  workings  of  the 
divine  plan  in  the  history  of  humanity,  as  well  as  in 
the  organic  and  cosmic  spheres  of  life. 

If  we  consider  the  plan  of  history,  as  mapped  out 
in  the  sacred  Scriptures  of  the  Jews,  without  preju¬ 
dice,  we  shall  see  in  it,  not  only  the  conception  of 


182 


EPILOGUE 


the  unity  of  mankind,  but  also  the  unity  of  all  life, 
cosmic,  organic  and  social.  Our  sacred  Scriptures 
presuppose  the  unity  of  God,  in  spite  of  the  apparent 
variety  which  the  word  presents,  and  the  unity  of  the 
human  genus,  notwithstanding  the  differences  of 
races ;  because  the  total  plan  of  the  history  of  the 
world  seems  to  have  been  always  present  to  the  spirit 
of  the  Jewish  people,  from  the  beginning  of  its  his¬ 
tory.  The  entire  literature  of  the  Jews  is  to  be  con¬ 
ceived  only  from  this  genetic  point  of  view.  Judaism 
is  a  historical  religion,  a  historical  cult,  in  contra¬ 
distinction  to  Paganism,  which  is  a  natural  cult. 

The  revelation  of  the  Jewish  spirit,  which  was  an 
isolated  phenomenon  at  the  dawn  of  the  history  of 
humanity,  would  have  been  inexplicable  and  would 
appear  supernatural,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that 
there  existed  originally  different  tribes,  with  typi¬ 
cally  individual  mental  qualities,  which  had  evolved 
fundamentally  different  views  long  before  the  revela¬ 
tion  of  the  Jewish  spirit.  This  same  remarkable 
manifestation  of  individuality  is  met  in  the  divergent 
languages  of  primitive  peoples.  Primitive  religions 
and  primitive  languages  are,  as  Renan  has  rightly 
observed,  race  creations ;  though  he  himself  had 
hardly  any  conception  of  the  importance  of  the 
ancient  Jewish  historical  religion.  History  corrobo¬ 
rates  the  story  of  anthropology,  that  there  were 
originally  different  human  races  and  tribes.1 

1  In  this,  as  well  as  in  the  subsequent  passage,  Hess  en¬ 
deavors  to  prove  his  objection  to  the  doctrine  of  monogenism, 
the  theory  that  there  was  originally  only  one  race  and  that  the 


EPILOGUE 


183 


If  the  various  races  and  peoples  that  still  exist 
were  not  primal,  then,  in  such  places  as  Western 
Asia,  Northern  Africa  and  Europe,  where  peoples 
have  lived  together  for  thousands  of  years,  com¬ 
mingling  through  intermarriage  and  influenced  by 
common  climatic  conditions,  there  should  have  been 
produced  a  type,  in  which  there  is  no  trace  of  their 
foregone  ancestors.  But  all  human  races  and  tribal 
types,  known  to  us  either  from  historical  monuments, 
or  who  still  live  to-day  in  their  primitive  homes,  in 
spite  of  climatic  and  cultural  influences,  have  repro¬ 
duced  their  original  types  in  such  a  way  that  the 
anthropologist  can  tell,  at  a  glance,  the  different 
types  of  humanity,  according  to  their  physiological 
and  psychical  characteristics.  The  most  ancient 
Egyptian  monuments  depict  negroes  as  well  as  Indo- 
Germanic  and  Semitic  types,  races  which  have  lived 
from  time  immemorial  in  the  same  land  and  which 
were  likewise  scattered  in  different  countries  and 
climates,  yet  their  primal  types  have  not  undergone 
any  perceptible  changes. 

The  languages  of  those  nations  with  whom  our  civ¬ 
ilization  originated  belong  to  two  primal  races,  the 
Indo-Germanic  and  the  Semitic.  The  ancient  culture 

differences  between  races  are  only  secondary,  acquired  through 
the  influence  of  environment.  Hess  believes  that  the  various 
races  existing  to-day  are  not  modifications  of  one  mother-race, 
but  are  primal  and  essentially  different  races;  their  charac¬ 
teristics  are  not  acquired,  but  inherent.  He  does  not,  however, 
explain  how  these  original  and  primal  races  suddenly  came 
into  existence.  For  a  more  detailed  discussion  of  this  ques¬ 
tion,  see  Note  VII  and  Introduction. — Translator. 


184 


EPILOGUE 


of  the  former  reached  its  culminating  point  in 
Greece;  of  the  latter,  in  Judaea.  In  these  two  coun¬ 
tries  the  typical  antithesis  between  the  Indo-Germanic 
and  Semitic  races  reached  its  highest  point,  and  the 
fundamental  differences  in  the  views  of  life  of  these 
two  races  were  expressed  in  the  classical  works  of 
the  Hellenes  and  Hebrews.  We  see,  from  those  works, 
that  the  former  viewed  life  as  a  multiplicity  and  the 
latter  as  a  unity;  the  one,  looked  upon  the  world  as 
eternal  being ,  the  other,  as  eternal  becoming.  The 
spirit  of  the  one  expressed  itself  in  terms  of  space, 
that  of  the  other,  in  terms  of  time.  In  the  expres¬ 
sion  of  the  Greek  spirit,  there  is  the  underlying  idea 
of  a  perfectly  created  world;  the  Hebrew  spirit,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  permeated  with  the  invisible  energy 
of  becoming,  and  the  world,  according  to  it,  is  gov¬ 
erned  by  a  principle  which  will  begin  its  workday  in 
social  life,  when  it  has  arrived  at  a  standstill  in  the 
world  of  Nature.  The  classical  representatives  of 
the  natural  Sabbath  no  longer  exist  as  a  people,  and 
the  God  of  history  has  dispersed  his  people,  which 
foresaw  the  historical  Sabbath,  among  the  nations. 
But  the  two  primal  types  of  spirit,  which  no  longer 
have  classical  nations  as  their  representatives,  have 
still  many  such  individuals  among  civilized  nations. 
The  two  giants  of  German  literature,  Goethe  and 
Schiller,  are  the  German  representatives  of  the  two 
types  of  genius — the  Greek  and  the  Hebrew — of  the 
natural  and  historical  Sabbath.  And  when  Heine 
divides  all  men  into  Hellenists  and  Nazarenes,  he 
designates,  unconsciously,  these  two  types  of  spirit. 


EPILOGUE 


185 


Modern  Jews,  like  the  Indo-Germanic  nations,  have 
in  Heine  and  Borne  their  representatives  of  these  two 
types  of  cultural  life.2 

After  the  antithesis  of  the  two  spiritual  tendencies 
reached  its  culminating  points  in  two  historical  peo¬ 
ples,  the  conciliation  of  these  two  points  of  view 
became  the  task  of  the  civilized  nations. 

The  first  attempt  at  a  reconciliation  of  the  two 
types  of  civilization  was  made  by  Christianity,  fol¬ 
lowed  by  that  of  Islam,  which  contested  the  right  to 
dominion  of  the  former,  in  Asia,  Africa  and  even  in 
a  part  of  Europe  itself,  namely,  in  Spain.  Just  as 
the  process  of  conciliation  started  from  the  contact 
of  the  Hellenic  and  Jewish  cultures,  in  the  ancient 
Jewish  fatherland,  so  in  the  meeting  of  Arabic,  Jew¬ 
ish  and  European  cultures  in  Spain,  the  second 
fatherland  of  the  Jews,  the  final  mediation  process 
between  the  two  types  of  universal  history  had  its 
origin.  But  the  spiritual  spark  which  arose  out  of 
the  friction  of  the  two  tendencies,  and  which  became 
the  germ  of  a  higher  harmonious  tendency  in  which 
the  natural  racial  antitheses  of  the  historical  peoples 
will  ultimately  find  their  reconciliation,  this  social 
light  germ,  the  new  revelation,  was  generated  by  the 
Jewish  genius. 

When  pagan  Rome  brought  the  ancient  Hellenic 

2  “Natural  Sabbath”  and  “Historical  Sabbath”  are  used  by 
Hess  as  symbolic  expressions;  the  former  view  looks  upon  the 
world  as  an  accomplished  thing,  the  latter,  only  a  becoming, 
i.e.,  a  continuous  creation.  The  one  is  the  expression  of  the 
Hellenic  spirit,  the  other  that  of  the  Hebrew. — Translator. 


t 


186  EPILOGUE 

and  Jewish  cultural  life  to  an  end,  there  arose,  from 
the  ruins  of  the  latter,  a  new  view  of  the  world ;  and 
when  Christian  Rome  struck  the  mortal  blow  at  the 
Arabic  and  Jewish  cultural  life  in  Spain,  there  arose 
again,  in  the  mind  of  a  Jew,  from  the  ruins  of  the 
latter,  the  modern  world  view.  Spinoza  was  a 
descendant  of  the  Spanish  Jews,  who  fled  to  Holland 
in  order  to  escape  the  “holy”  Inquisition. 

II.  Christ  and  Spinoza 

From  Judaism,  permeated  with  the  scientific  spirit, 
Christianity  will  receive  full  justice  and  its  impor¬ 
tance  will  be  properly  estimated.  The  Jewish  his¬ 
torian  no  longer  finds  it  necessary  to  assume  an 
attitude  of  fanaticism  toward  it.  Graetz,  in  the 
third  volume  of  his  history,  has  shown  how  one  can 
be  a  loyal  Jew  and  at  the  same  time  an  objective 
judge  of  that  phenomenon  which  has  been  a  source 
of  persecution  to  the  Jews  for  the  last  eighteen  hun¬ 
dred  years.  A  few  quotations  from  that  writer  will 
show  with  what  freedom  of  spirit  and  objectivity  a 
Jewish  historian,  not  a  reformer,  has  characterized 
Christianity  and  its  founder. 

“While  Judaea  was  still  trembling,”  says  our  Jew¬ 
ish  historian,  “lest  the  procurator  Pontius  Pilate 
strike  a  blow  at  the  population,  which  might  result 
in  a  rising  in  arms  and  great  suffering,  a  strange 
event  occurred.  It  was  so  small  in  its  beginning, 
that  people  scarcely  noticed  it,  but  gradually, 


EPILOGUE 


187 


through  the  force  of  circumstances,  it  assumed  such 
proportions  that  it  turned  the  history  of  the  world 

into  new  paths . Israel  was  now  to  commence 

his  mission  in  earnest;  he  was  to  become  the  teacher 
of  nations.”1 

“It  was  due  to  the  strange  movement  which  arose 
under  the  governorship  of  Pilate,  that  the  teachings 
of  Judaism  won  the  sympathy  of  the  heathen  world. 
But  this  new  form  of  Judaism,  changed  by  foreign 
elements,  became  estranged  from  and  antagonistic  to 
the  source  from  which  it  sprang.  Judaism  could 
hardly  rejoice  at  her  offspring,  which  soon  turned 
coldly  from  her  and  struck  out  into  strange,  diver¬ 
gent  paths.  If  Judaism  does  not  wish  to  strip  off 
its  ancient  individuality  and  become  disloyal  to  its 
own  convictions,  it  must  continue  its  existence  in 
opposition  to  the  religion  to  which  she  gave  birth. 
This  new  movement,  this  old  doctrine  in  a  new  garb, 
or  rather  Essenism  intermingled  with  foreign  ele¬ 
ments,  is  Christianity,  whose  advent  and  early  devel¬ 
opment  belong  to  the  Judaean  history  of  this  epoch.” 

“As  regards  Jesus  himself,”  says  Graetz,  “on  ac¬ 
count  of  his  Galilean  origin,  he  could  not  have  stood 
high  in  that  knowledge  of  the  Law  which  through 
the  schools  of  Shammai  and  Hillel  had  become  preva¬ 
lent  in  Judaea.  His  small  stock  of  learning  and  his 
corrupt  half-Aramaic  language  pointed  unmistaka- 

i  Geschiclite  der  Juden,  2nd  edition,  Vol.  Ill,  Ch.  XI,  p. 
216.  The  chapter,  from  which  we  cite  only  a  few  fragments, 
gives  to  the  history  of  the  development  of  Christianity,  a  new 
historical  viewpoint  and  supplies  it  with  new  sources.  See 
also  Vol.  IV,  Chapters  V,  VIII,  IX,  and  notes. 


188 


EPILOGUE 


bly  to  his  birthplace  in  Galilee.  His  deficiency  in 
knowledge,  however,  was  compensated  by  his  intensely 
sympathetic  character.  Earnestness  and  moral  pu¬ 
rity  were  his  undeniable  attributes ;  they  stand  out 
in  all  the  authentic  accounts  of  his  life  that  have 
reached  us,  and  appear  even  in  those  garbled  teach¬ 
ings  which  his  followers  placed  in  his  mouth.  The 
gentle  disposition  and  the  humility  of  Jesus  remind 
one  of  Hillel,  whom  he  seems  to  have  taken  as  his 
model,  and  whose  golden  rule,  “What  you  wish  not 
to  be  done  to  yourself,  do  not  do  unto  others,”  he 
adopted  as  the  starting-point  of  his  moral  code.  Like 
Hillel,  Jesus  looked  upon  promotion  of  peace  and  the 
forgiveness  of  injuries  as  the  highest  forms  of  virtue. 
His  whole  being  was  permeated  by  that  deeper  re¬ 
ligiousness  which  consecrates  to  God  not  only  the 
hour  of  prayer,  a  day  of  penitence,  and  longer  or 
shorter  periods  of  devotional  exercise,  but  every  step 
in  the  journey  of  life,  which  turns  every  aspiration  of 
the  soul  toward  Him,  subjects  everything  to  His 
will,  and  with  childlike  trust,  commits  everything  to 
His  keeping.  He  was  filled  with  that  tender,  broth¬ 
erly  love  which  Judaism  teaches  should  be  manifested 
even  to  an  enemy.  Certainly  no  curse  against  his 
enemies  escaped  his  lips,  and  his  enthusiastic  admirers 
have  done  him  an  injustice  when  they  placed  in  his 
mouth  a  curse  or  even  unfriendly  words  against  his 
own  mother.  He  reached  the  ideal  of  the  passive 
virtues  which  the  Pharisees  inculcated:  “Be  of  the 
oppressed  and  not  of  the  oppressors ;  receive  abuse 


EPILOGUE 


189 


and  return  it  not ;  let  the  motive  of  all  your  actions 
be  the  love  of  God,  and  rejoice  in  suffering.”2 

Jesus  must,  from  the  idiosyncrasies  of  his  nature, 
have  been  powerfully  attracted  by  the  Essenes,  who 
led  a  contemplative  life  apart  from  the  world  and  its 
vanities.  When  John,  the  Baptist — or  more  cor¬ 
rectly,  the  Essene, — invited  all  to  come  to  receive 
baptism  in  the  Jordan,  to  repent  and  prepare  for  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  Jesus  hastened  to  obey  the  call 
and  was  baptized  by  him.  Although  it  cannot  be 
proved  that  Jesus  was  formally  admitted  into  the 
order  of  the  Essenes,  much  of  his  life  and  work  can 
only  be  explained  on  the  supposition  that  he  had 
adopted  their  fundamental  principles.  Like  the  Es¬ 
senes,  Jesus  highly  esteemed  self-inflicted  poverty, 
and  despised  the  mammon  of  riches.  .  .  .  Commu- 
nity  of  goods,  a  peculiar  doctrine  of  the  Essenes,  was 
not  only  approved,  but  positively  enjoined  by  Jesus, 
for  his  close  disciples  had  a  common  purse  and  shared 
their  goods.  Like  the  Essenes,  he  reprobated  every 
form  of  oath.  “Swear  not  at  all,”  taught  Jesus, 
“neither  by  heaven  nor  by  the  earth,  nor  by  your 
head,  but  let  your  yea  be  yea,  and  your  nay  be  nay” 
(James  v,  12).  Miraculous  cures  said  to  have  been 
performed  by  him,  such  as  exorcism  of  demons  from 
those  who  believed  themselves  to  be  possessed,  were 
often  made  by  the  Essenes.  It  was,  therefore,  not 
considered  a  special  miracle  that  Jesus  could  do  the 

2  Sabbath,  88b;  Yoma,  23a;  Gittin,  36b.  The  style  of  the 
sayings  indicates  that  they  were  originally  a  part  of  an  ancient 
Baraitha. 


190 


EPILOGUE 


same  thing.  We  can  also  infer  from  the  life  that  his 
friends  led,  that  the  founder  of  the  sect  embraced 
Essenism.  Of  his  brother  James,  it  is  said,  with  all 
certainty  that  he  led  the  life  of  an  Essene,  for  he  did 
not  drink  wine  nor  eat  meat  nor  use  oil,  and  always 
dressed  in  linen.  But  it  would  seem  that  Jesus 
adopted  only  the  essential  traits  of  Essenism,  such 
as  the  predilection  for  poverty,  the  contempt  for 
riches  and  property,  the  community  of  goods,  celib¬ 
acy,  the  fear  of  pronouncing  an  oath  and  the  ability 
to  exert  a  curative  influence  upon  maniacs.  The 
unimportant  practices,  such  as  the  observance  of 
strict  levitical  purity,  the  frequent  taking  of  baths 
and  the  wearing  of  linen  robes,  he  dropped.  Even 
baptism  did  not  play  an  important  role  with  him,  for 
we  do  not  find  it  emphasized  either  in  the  stories  told 
about  him  or  in  the  sayings  attributed  to  him.” 

“After  John  had  been  imprisoned  by  Herod  An- 
tipas  in  the  fortress  of  Macharus,  Jesus  thought  sim¬ 
ply  of  continuing  his  master’s  work.  Like  John,  he 
preached  “Repent,  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at 
hand,”3  without  perhaps  having  then  a  suspicion  of 
the  part  he  was  afterward  to  play  in  that  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.  Jesus  apparently  felt  that  if  his  appeal 
was  not  to  be  lost  in  the  desert,  like  that  of  the  Bap¬ 
tist,  but  bring  forth  lasting  results,  it  must  not  be 
addressed  to  the  whole  nation,  but  to  a  particular 

3  Matthew  iv,  12.  In  the  parallel  passage,  Mark  i,  15,  there 
are  added  to  the  above  the  rather  suspicious  words:  “and  be¬ 
lieve  the  gospel.”  The  term  Evangelion  is  of  post-Pauline 
origin  and  could  hardly  have  been  used  by  Jesus. 


EPILOGUE 


191 


class  of  the  Jews.  The  middle  classes,  inhabitants  of 
towns  of  greater  or  lesser  importance,  were  not  want¬ 
ing  in  godliness,  piety  and  morality,  and  conse¬ 
quently  a  call  to  them  to  repent  and  forsake  their 
sins  would  have  been  meaningless.  The  declaration 
made  to  Jesus  by  the  young  man  who  was  seeking 
the  way  of  eternal  life,  ‘From  my  youth  I  have  kept 
the  laws  of  God;  I  have  not  committed  murder  or 
adultery,  nor  have  I  stolen  or  borne  false  witness ;  I 
have  honored  my  father  and  loved  my  neighbor  as 
myself,’  4  might  have  been  made  by  the  greater  num¬ 
ber  of  the  middle-class  Jews  of  that  time.  The  de¬ 
scription  of  the  later  writers  of  the  corruption  of 
the  Jews  and  of  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Pharisees,  in 
the  time  of  Jesus,  is  pure  fiction.  The  disciples  of 
Shammai  and  Hillel,  the  followers  of  the  zealot  Judas, 
the  bitter  foes  of  the  Herodians  and  of  Rome,  were 
not  morally  sick  and  were  not  in  need  of  a  physician. 
They  were  ever  ready  for  self-sacrifice  and  Jesus 
wisely  refrained  from  turning  to  them.  Still  less  was 
he  inclined  to  attempt  to  reform  the  rich,  the  friends 
of  the  Romans  and  the  Herodians.  From  these,  the 
warning  of  the  simple,  unlearned  moralist  and 
preacher,  his  reproof  of  their  pride,  their  venality 
and  inconstancy,  would  only  have  elicited  mockery 
and  derision.  Jesus  therefore  determined  to  seek  out 
those  who  did  not  belong  to  or  had  been  expelled 
from  the  Jewish  community.  There  were  in  Judsea 
at  the  time  many  who  had  no  conception  of  the 
wholesome  truths  of  Judaism,  of  its  laws,  its  history 
4  Matthew,  xix,  16-20,  and  parallel  passages. 


192 


EPILOGUE 


and  its  future.  They  were  publicans  and  tax-gath¬ 
erers  who  were  shunned  by  the  patriots,  as  promoters 
of  Roman  interests,  who  turned  their  backs  upon  the 
Law,  and  led  a  wild  life,  heedless  alike  of  the  past 
and  of  the  future.  There  were  also  poor,  ignorant 
handicraftsmen  and  menials  (Am-haaretz) ,  who  were 
seldom  able  to  visit  the  capital,  or  listen  to  teachings 
which,  indeed,  they  would  probably  not  have  under¬ 
stood.  It  was  not  for  them  that  Sinai  had  flamed 
or  the  prophets  had  uttered  their  cry  of  warning; 
for  the  teachers  of  the  Law,  more  intent  upon  ex¬ 
pounding  doctrines  than  upon  reforming  their  hear¬ 
ers,  failed  to  make  the  Law  and  the  prophets  intelli¬ 
gible  to  those  classes,  and  consequently  did  not  draw 
them  into  their  fold.  It  was  to  these  classes  that 
Jesus  turned,  to  snatch  them  out  of  their  torpor, 
their  ignorance  and  their  ungodliness.  He  felt  that 
he  was  called  to  save  the  ‘lost  sheep  of  the  house  of 
Israel.5  ‘They  that  be  whole  need  not  a  physician, 
but  they  that  are  sick.5  5 

“Jesus,  however,  by  word  and  example,  raised  the 
sinner  and  publican,  and  filled  the  hearts  of  those 
poor,  neglected  people  with  the  love  of  God,  trans¬ 
forming  them  into  dutiful  children  of  their  heavenly 
Father.  He  animated  them  with  his  own  piety  and 
fervor  and  improved  their  conduct  by  the  hope  he 
gave  them  of  being  able  to  enter  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  Above  all  things,  he  taught  his  male  and 
female  disciples  the  Essene  virtues  of  self-abnegation 

8  Matthew  ix,  12;  x,  5;  xv,  24;  xviii,  11-14,  and  parallel  pas¬ 
sages. 


EPILOGUE 


193 


and  humility,  of  the  contempt  for  riches,  of  charity 
and  the  love  of  peace.  He  bade  them  become  sinless 
as  little  children,  and  declared  they  must  be  as  if 
bom  again,  if  they  would  become  members  of  the 
approaching  Messianic  Kingdom.  The  law  of  broth¬ 
erly  love  and  forbearance  he  carried  to  the  extent 
of  self-immolation.  ‘If  one  smite  thee  on  one  cheek, 
turn  to  him  the  other  also ;  and  if  one  sue  thee  at  law 
and  take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak  also.’ 
He  taught  the  poor  that  they  should  not  take  heed 
for  meat  or  drink  or  raiment,  but  pointed  to  the 
birds  of  the  air  and  the  lilies  of  the  field  that  were 
fed  and  clothed,  yet  ‘they  toil  not  neither  do  they 
spin.’  He  taught  the  rich  how  to  distribute  alms — 
‘Let  not  thy  left  hand  know  what  thy  right  hand 
doeth.’  He  admonished  the  hypocrite,  and  bade  him 
pray  in  the  secrecy  of  his  closet,  placing  before  him 
a  short  form  of  prayer — ‘Our  Father,5  which  may 
possibly  have  been  in  use  among  the  Essenes. 

“Jesus  made  no  attack  upon  Judaism  itself.  He 
had  no  idea  of  becoming  the  reformer  of  Jewish  doc¬ 
trine  or  the  propounder  of  a  new  Law.  He  sought 
merely  to  redeem  the  sinner,  to  call  him  to  a  good 
and  holy  life  and  to  make  him  worthy  of  participa¬ 
tion  in  the  approaching  Messianic  time.  He  insisted 
upon  the  unity  of  God,  and  was  far  from  attempting 
to  change  in  the  slightest  degree  the  Jewish  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  Deity.  To  the  question  once  put  to  him 
by  an  expounder  of  the  law,  ‘What  is  the  essence  of 
Judaism?5  he  replied,  ‘Hear,  O  Israel,  our  God  is 
one,5  and  ‘Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself5; 


194 


EPILOGUE 


— these  are  the  chief  commandments.  When  a  man 
approached  him  with  the  words :  ‘Good  Master,’  Jesus 
remarked:  ‘Call  me  not  good,  there  is  none  good  but 
One,  that  is,  my  Father  in  Heaven.’  His  disciples, 
who  remained  true  to  Judaism,  promulgated  the  dec¬ 
laration  of  their  master — ‘I  have  not  come  to  destroy 
but  to  fulfil;  till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or 
one  tittle  shall  in  nowise  pass  from  the  Law  till  all 
be  fulfilled.’  6 

He  must  have  kept  the  Sabbath  holy,  for  those  of 
his  followers  who  were  attached  to  Judaism  strictly 
observed  the  Sabbath,  which  they  would  not  have 
done  had  their  master  disregarded  it.  It  was  only 
the  Shammaitic  strictness  in  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  which  forbade  even  the  healing  of  the  sick 
on  that  day,  that  Jesus  protested  against,  declaring 
that  it  was  lawful  to  do  good  on  the  Sabbath.  Jesus 
made  no  objection  to  the  existing  custom  of  sacri¬ 
fice,  he  merely  demanded — and  in  this  the  Pharisees 
agreed  with  him — that  reconciliation  with  one’s  fel¬ 
low-man  should  precede  any  act  of  atonement.7  He 
did  not  even  oppose  fasting  when  practised  without 
ostentation  or  hypocrisy.  He  was  so  completely 
Jewish,  that  he  shared  the  narrow  views  of  his  time, 

6  Matthew  v,  17-19.  Cf.  the  Epistle  of  James,  x,  12.  The 
fact  that  the  extreme  antinomist  Mark  formulates  the  say¬ 
ing  in  the  opposite  sense,  namely,  “I  have  come  to  abrogate 
the  Law,”  proves  the  authenticity  of  the  original  form  as  quoted 
in  the  two  synoptic  Gospels.  We  find  in  the  Talmud  (Sabbath, 
116b)  the  same  saying  in  its  gospel  form:  “And  it  is  written 
in  it  (i.e.  in  the  Gospel) :  “I  have  not  come  to  abrogate  any 
law  of  Moses  or  to  add  anything  to  it.” 

7  Qf.  the  last  Mishnah  of  Yoma. 


EPILOGUE 


195 


and,  like  the  Jews  of  the  period,  thoroughly  despised 
the  heathen  world,  which  included  the  Roman  op¬ 
pressors  and  their  followers,  the  Oriental  Greeks  and 
Syrians.  One  must  not  throw  holy  things  to  the 
dogs,  he  taught,  nor  cast  pearls  before  swine,  lest 
they  trample  them  under  their  feet  and  turn  again 
and  rend  you.  When  a  Canaanite  or  a  Syrian-Greek 
woman  from  Phoenicia  implored  him  to  heal  her  pos¬ 
sessed  daughter,  he  replied  harshly,  “I  was  sent  only 
to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel  and  it  is  not 
right  to  take  the  bread  away  from  the  mouth  of  the 
children  and  cast  it  to  the  dogs.”  To  his  disciples  he 
repeatedly  spoke:  Do  not  follow  in  the  paths  of  the 
heathens  and  do  not  enter  the  cities  of  the  Samari¬ 
tans.  While  Jesus  thus  confined  himself  to  the 
bounds  of  Judaism,  he  had  no  intention  to  proclaim 
a  new  revelation  or  to  originate  a  new  covenant,8 
but  limited  himself  to  the  task  of  sowing  the  seeds 
of  religion  and  morality  in  such  hearts  as  had  here¬ 
tofore  been  barren  of  it.  Jesus  did  not  teach  the 

s  It  is  true  that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  in  Matthew,  chs. 
v-vii,  partly  represents  Jesus  as  one  who  wishes  to  oppose  his 
teaching  to  the  Law.  But  the  authenticity  of  the  Sermon 
itself  is  very  doubtful.  Mark  does  not  record  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  at  all.  Luke  knows  it  only  in  part.  We  may,  there¬ 
fore,  suspect  it  to  be  an  interpolation  in  Matthew’s  ground¬ 
work.  Finally,  it  is  full  of  contradictions;  here,  the  Law  is 
praised  and  immediately  afterward  it  is  condemned.  Is  it 
possible  that  Jesus  should  have  uttered  such  an  untruthful 
statement  in  regard  to  the  Law  as  “It  is  written,  ‘Hate  thy 
enemy’?”  (Ibid.,  v,  43).  Only  an  enemy  of  the  Law  like 
Mark  could  have  formulated  it,  he  who  established  the  famous 
antithesis  between  Judaism  and  Christianity  and  who  did  not 
always  adhere  to  the  truth. 


196 


EPILOGUE 


immortality  of  the  soul,  in  the  sense  of  a  continued 
existence  of  the  soul  after  its  liberation  from  the 
body  and  its  sojourning  in  the  abode  of  heaven,  but 
emphasized  the  resurrection  of  the  body  at  a  definite 
time,9  in  accordance  with  the  teachings  of  Judaism 
current  in  his  day.  The  resurrection  of  the  just  and 
pious  was,  according  to  him,  to  take  place  on  earth, 
and  as  the  beginning  of  the  inauguration  of  a  new 
order  of  things,  the  future  world  ( Olovn  hab-ba ), 
which  he,  like  the  Pharisees  and  Essenes,  identified 
with  the  Messianic  era  and  the  initiation  of  the  King¬ 
dom  of  Heaven.  He,  like  the  Pharisees,  threatened 
sinners  with  eternal  punishment  in  a  fiery  pit  (Ge¬ 
henna).10  The  merit  of  Jesus  consists  in  his  ef¬ 
forts  to  impart  inner  force  to  the  precepts  of  Juda¬ 
ism,  in  his  upholding  the  Jewish  doctrine  of  the 
Brotherhood  of  Man,  in  his  insistence  that  moral 
laws  be  placed  in  the  foreground,  and  in  his  endeav¬ 
ors  to  have  them  accepted  by  those  who  had  hitherto 
been  regarded  as  the  lowest  and  most  degraded  of 
human  beings. 

His  great  design,  the  central  point  of  all  his 
thoughts,  Jesus  disclosed  on  one  occasion  to  the  most 
intimate  circle  of  his  disciples.  He  led  them  to  a 
retired  spot  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Hermon,  near 
Caesarea  Philippi,  where  the  Jordan  rushes  forth 
from  mighty  rocks,  and  in  that  remote  solitude  he 
revealed  to  them  the  hidden  object  of  his  thoughts. 
But  he  contrived  his  discourse  in  a  way  that  it  ap¬ 
peared  to  be  his  disciples,  who  at  last  elicited  from 
8  Matthew  xxii,  23-32.  io  Matthew  v,  22. 


EPILOGUE 


197 


him  the  revelation  that  he  considered  himself  the  ex¬ 
pected  Messiah.  He  asked  his  followers  whom  they 
thought  him  to  be.  Some  replied  that  he  was  thought 
to  be  Elijah,  the  forerunner  of  the  Messiah;  others, 
that  he  was  the  prophet  whose  advent  Moses  had  pre¬ 
dicted;  upon  which  Jesus  asked  them,  “But  whom 
say  ye  that  I  am?”  Simon  Peter  answered  and  said, 
“Thou  art  the  Christ.”  Jesus  praised  Peter’s  dis¬ 
cernment  and  admitted  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  but 
forbade  his  disciples  to  divulge  the  truth,  or,  for  the 
present,  from  speaking  about  it  at  all.11  Such  was 
the  mysteriously-veiled  birth  of  Christianity.  When, 
a  few  days  later,  the  most  trusted  of  his  disciples, 
Simon  Peter,  and  the  two  sons  of  Zebedee,  James 
and  John,  timidly  suggested  that  Elijah  must  pre¬ 
cede  the  Messiah,  Jesus  replied  that  Elijah  had  al¬ 
ready  appeared,  though  unrecognized,  in  the  person 
of  the  Baptist.12  Had  Jesus  from  the  very  com¬ 
mencement  of  his  career  nourished  these  thoughts  in 
the  depths  of  his  soul,  or  had  they  first  taken  shape 
when  the  many  followers  he  had  gained  seemed  to 
make  their  realization  possible?  This  is  a  puzzle 
which  cannot  be  solved.  Jesus  never  publicly  called 
himself  the  Messiah,  but  made  use  of  other  expres¬ 
sions  which  were  doubtless  current  among  the  Es- 
senes.  He  called  himself  “the  Son  of  Man,”  13  ( Bar - 
Nash),  alluding  probably  to  Daniel  vii,  13,  “One 

11  Matthew  xvi,  13-20.  In  the  Gospel  of  Mark  (viii,  27-30), 
the  story  retains  more  of  its  originality.  In  Luke  ix,  18,  it  is 
more  or  less  confused. 

12  Matthew  xvii,  10 .  iii. 

12  Matthew,  xvii,  10. 


198 


EPILOGUE 


like  the  son  of  man  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven, 
and  came  to  the  Ancient  of  Days,”  a  verse  which, 
at  that  time,  was  made  to  point  to  the  Messiah  him¬ 
self.14  There  was  yet  another  name  which  Jesus  ap¬ 
plied  to  himself  in  his  Messianic  character — the  mys¬ 
terious  words  “Son  of  God,”  probably  taken  from 
the  seventh  verse  of  the  second  Psalm,  “The  Lord 
has  said  unto  me,  thou  art  my  son,  this  day  have  I 
begotten  thee,”  a  verse  which  was  in  certain  Jewish 
circles  interpreted  to  refer  to  the  Messiah.15  Was 
this  expression  used  by  Jesus  figuratively,  or  did  he 
wish  it  to  be  taken  in  a  literal  sense?  As  far  as  we 
know,  he  never  explained  himself  clearly  on  this  sub¬ 
ject,  not  even  later,  when  it  was  on  account  of  the 
meaning  attached  to  these  words  that  he  was  brought 
to  trial.  His  followers  afterward  disagreed  among 
themselves  upon  the  matter,  and  the  various  ways  in 
which  they  interpreted  his  words  divided  them  into 
different  sects,  among  which  a  new  form  of  idolatry 
unfolded  itself. 

Other  appellations  were  employed  by  Jesus  to  des¬ 
ignate  his  Messianic  character,  such  as  “Heavenly 
Bread”  ( Manna )  and  the  “Bread  of  Life,”  16  ex¬ 
pressions  which  were  doubtless  employed  by  the 
Essenes.  He  called  his  followers  “the  salt  of  the 
earth.”  17  How  Jesus  expected  to  fulfil  the  Messi- 

14  Cf.  Sanhedrin,  98a.  There  the  Messiah  is  called  by  a 
hybrid  name  Bar-Nefile,  a  Greek  word,  meaning  “son  of  the 
clouds.”  See  also  ibid.,  96b. 

is  Sukka,  52a. 

16  John  vi,  35,  41. 

it  Matthew  v,  13-14,  and  parallel  passages. 


EPILOGUE 


199 


anic  expectations,  is  nowhere  indicated.  It  is  only 
certain  that  he  thought  only  of  Israel,  whom  he  ex¬ 
pected  to  deliver,  both  from  the  burden  of  sin  and 
the  yoke  of  the  Romans.18  Of  the  pagan  world,  he 
thought  as  little,  when  considering  himself  the  Mes¬ 
siah,  as  when  he  was  only  a  disciple  of  John  the 
Baptist.  He  probably  pictured  to  himself  the  re¬ 
demption  of  Israel  in  the  following  manner:  that 
when  the  Jewish  people,  through  love  of  God  and 
man,  through  self-denial  and  the  assumption  of  vol¬ 
untary  poverty,  would  rise,  under  his  leadership,  to 
a  higher  life,  God,  out  of  love  to  his  people,  would 
perform  for  them  all  sorts  of  miracles,  such  as  the 
deliverance  from  the  rule  of  the  Romans,  the  return 
of  the  exiled  tribes  and  final  restoration  of  Israel  to 
its  former  Davidic  splendor. 

When  Jesus  made  himself  known  to  his  disciples 
as  the  Messiah,  he  enjoined  upon  them,  as  remarked 
already,  to  keep  the  revelation  secret.  Whether  it 
was  the  fear  of  Herod  Antipas,  the  slayer  of  the 
Baptist,  that  inspired  this  cautious  measure,  or 
whether  he  intended  to  wait  until  a  larger  circle  of 
disciples  gathered  about  him  to  reveal  himself  as  the 
Messiah,  cannot  be  ascertained.  He  consoled  his 
disciples  for  the  present  silence  imposed  upon  them, 
by  the  assurance  that  a  time  would  come  when  “What 
I  tell  you  in  darkness,  that  speak  ye  in  the  light,  and 
what  ye  hear  in  the  ear,  that  preach  ye  upon  the 
house  tops.”  What  occurred  was  contrary  to  what 
Jesus  and  his  disciples  expected,  for  as  soon  as  it 
i8  Luke  xxiv,  21. 


200 


EPILOGUE 


was  known  (the  disciples  having  probably  not  kept 
the  secret),  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  not  only  came 
to  preach  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  proclaimed 
himself  as  the  expected  Messiah,  public  sentiment 
rose  against  him.  He  was  asked  to  give  proofs  and 
signs  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  which  he  was  not  able 
to  do,  and  he  was  thus  forced  constantly  to  evade 
the  questions  addressed  to  him.  Many  of  his  fol¬ 
lowers  were  vexed  at  his  assuming  the  role  of  a  Mes¬ 
siah,  and  left  him.  In  order  not  to  be  discredited  in 
the  eyes  of  his  disciples,  it  was  necessary  that  he 
should  perform  some  miracle  that  would  crown  his 
work  or  seal  it  with  his  death.  They  expected,  first, 
that  he  would  appear  in  the  capital  at  the  time  of 
the  Passover  Feast  and  there  declare  himself  in  the 
Temple,  in  the  presence  of  all  the  people,  as  the  Mes¬ 
siah.  It  is  said  that  his  own  brothers  entreated  him 
to  go  to  the  capital,  so  that  his  disciples  should  at 
last  see  his  great  work.  “For  there  is  no  man  that 
doeth  anything  in  secret  and  he  himself  seeketh  to 
be  known  openly.  If  thou  do  these  things,  show 
thyself  to  the  world.”  (John  vii,  4.)  And  so  Jesus 
was  finally  forced  to  enter  upon  the  path  of  danger. 
How  many  years  Jesus  spent  in  Galilee  is  unknown; 
the  Gospel  sources  seem  to  indicate  that  his  residence 
there  lasted  only  one  year,  so  little  did  they  know  of 
the  actual  events.  According  to  later  authorities, 
the  time  passed  by  Jesus  in  his  native  district  was 
three  years.19 

He  wished  to  prevent  any  misconception  as  to  his 
is  Irenaeus,  contra  hcereses,  ii,  38-39. 


EPILOGUE 


201 


desire  to  change  the  Law,  and  his  ready  reply  to  the 
Pharisee  who  asked  what  would  be  required  of  him 
if  he  became  his  disciple  was,  “If  thou  wilt  enter 
into  life,  keep  the  commandments;  sell  what  thou 
hast  and  give  to  the  poor.”  When  he  passed  Jeri¬ 
cho  and  came  near  to  the  capital,  he  took  up  his 
abode  near  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  village  of 
Bethany,  at  the  Mount  of  Olives,  where  the  lepers, 
who  were  forced  to  avoid  the  city,  had  their  settle¬ 
ment.  He  found  shelter  in  the  house  of  one  of  these 
outcasts  by  the  name  of  Simon,  who,  together  with 
his  fellow-sufferers,  became  his  followers.  The  other 
followers  that  he  found  at  Bethany  belonged  also 
to  the  lower  class,  such  as  Lazarus  and  his  sisters, 
Mary  and  Martha.  The  sources  know  only  of  one 
rich  resident  of  Jerusalem,  Joseph  of  Arimathea, 
who  became  a  disciple  of  Jesus. 

The  account  of  Jesus’  entry  in  Jerusalem  as  re¬ 
corded  in  the  Gospel  is  of  a  legendary  character.  It 
seems  incredible  that  the  people  should  one  day  have 
conducted  him  into  the  city  in  a  triumphal  march, 
and  the  following  day  have  demanded  his  death.  The 
one  account,  like  the  other,  is  pure  invention,  the 
first  designed  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  the 
masses  recognized  him  as  the  Messiah,  the  second,  in 
order  to  throw  the  guilt  of  his  execution  upon  the 
entire  people  of  Israel.  There  is  also  little  histori¬ 
cal  truth  in  the  story  that  Jesus  forced  his  way  into 
the  Temple,  overthrew  the  tables  of  the  money¬ 
changers,  and  drove  out  the  dove-sellers  from  their 
stalls.  Such  extraordinary  actions  would  not  have 


202 


EPILOGUE 


been  passed  over  in  silence  by  contemporary  histori¬ 
ans.  Nor  is  it  anywhere  mentioned  that  money¬ 
changers  and  dove-sellers  had  their  tables  within  the 
precincts  of  the  Temple.  We  know,  however,  that 
the  Temple  management  sold  the  necessary  wine, 
birds,  or  oil  to  those  who  brought  sacrifices.20 

But  it  is  just  the  most  important  facts  in  the  life 
of  Jesus,  namely,  the  attitude  which  he  assumed 
toward  the  people  of  Jerusalem,  the  Synhedrion  and 
the  sects,  the  question  whether  he  really  declared 
himself  publicly  as  the  Messiah,  and  how  the  decla¬ 
ration  was  received  by  the  people,  which  are  envel¬ 
oped  by  the  Gospel  writers  in  such  an  impenetrable 
veil  of  mystery,  that  one  cannot  fail  to  suspect  the 
legendary  character  of  the  whole  story.  There  un¬ 
doubtedly  existed  strong  prejudices  against  him 
among  the  people  of  the  capital.  The  educated 
classes  could  hardly  be  expected  to  accept  an  un¬ 
learned  Galilean  as  the  Messiah.  Such  a  supposi¬ 
tion  would  have  contradicted  the  age-long  tradition, 
that  the  Messiah  was  to  come  from  Bethlehem  and 
be  a  descendant  of  the  house  of  David.  It  is  pos¬ 
sible  that  the  proverb,  “Can  any  good  thing  come 
out  of  Nazareth?”  originated  at  this  time.  Devout 
Jews,  no  doubt,  took  offence  because  he  associated 
with  sinners  and  publicans,  eating  and  drinking  with 
them.  Even  the  disciples  of  John,  the  Essenes,  were 
displeased.21 

The  Shammaites  certainly  objected  to  his  healing 

20  Shekalim,  iv,  3;  v,  4. 

21  Matthew  xi,  2-9. 


EPILOGUE 


203 


of  the  sick  on  the  Sabbath,  and  would  not  have  hailed 
one,  who,  in  their  eyes,  violated  the  Sabbath,  as  the 
Messiah.  Neither  could  the  Zealots  expect  much  of 
Jesus,  who  did  not  inspire  his  followers  with  hatred 
toward  the  oppressors,  the  Romans,  but,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  preached  non-resistance  and  willing  submis¬ 
sion  to  the  Roman  authorities  as  expressed  in  his 
saying:  “Render,  therefore,  unto  Caesar  the  things 
which  are  Caesar’s,  and  unto  God,  the  things  which 
are  God’s”  (Matthew  xxii,  21).  All  these  cir¬ 
cumstances,  which  could  by  no  means  be  reconciled 
with  the  traditional  conception  of  the  Messiah, 
caused  the  higher  and  the  learned  classes  to  assume 
an  indifferent  attitude  toward  him,  and  consequently 
he  could  not  have  been  received  in  Jerusalem  with 
any  marked  degree  of  enthusiasm.  All  these  objec¬ 
tions,  however,  afforded  no  ground  for  any  legal  ac¬ 
cusation  against  him.  Freedom  of  thought  and  dif¬ 
ference  of  opinion  had,  owing  to  the  frequent  debates 
between  the  schools  of  Shammai  and  Hillel,  become 
a  firmly  established  right,  and  one  would  hardly  be 
prosecuted  because  of  a  difference  in  a  religious  opin¬ 
ion,  provided,  however,  that  he  did  not  openly  vio¬ 
late  any  of  the  authoritative  laws  or  reject  the  ac¬ 
cepted  conception  of  God.  It  was  just  in  this  regard 
that  Jesus  laid  himself  open  to  accusation.  The  re¬ 
port  had  spread  that  Jesus  had  called  himself  the 
Son  of  God,  an  appellation  which,  if  taken  literally, 
undermines  the  very  essential  religious  conceptions 
of  Judaism;  so  that  the  representatives  of  the  re¬ 
ligion  could  not  afford  to  pass  the  incident  over  in 


204 


EPILOGUE 


silence.  But  how  was  it  possible  for  the  tribunal  to 
ascertain  whether  Jesus  really  used  the  expression, 
or  what  meaning  he  attached  to  the  words?  How 
could  they  discover  the  secret  of  his  sect?  It  was 
necessary  for  this  purpose  to  find  a  traitor  from 
among  his  disciples.  Such  a  man  was  found  in  Judas 
Iscariot,  who,  incited  by  greed,  delivered  to  the 
tribunal,  we  are  told,  the  man  whom  he  heretofore 
had  revered  as  the  Messiah.  A  Jewish  source,  of 
ancient  origin  and  apparently  trustworthy,  seems  to 
place  in  the  true  light  the  use  made  of  this  traitor. 
The  Court  required,  in  order  to  arraign  Jesus  either 
as  a  false  prophet  or  as  a  seducer  of  the  people 
( Mesith ),  the  evidence  of  two  witnesses,  who  had 
heard  him  call  himself  by  the  name  “Son  of  God.” 
Judas  was  therefore  required  to  induce  him  to  speak 
on  the  subject,  so  that  the  two  witnesses,  concealed 
nearby,  should  be  able  to  hear  every  word.  This 
extraordinary  process  of  obtaining  testimony  against 
a  suspected  person  was  employed  only  in  one  case, 
namely,  when  a  person  was  suspected  of  being  a  se¬ 
ducer  of  the  people.22 

22  Both  sources,  the  Babylonian  Talmud,  Sanhedrin,  67a  (in 
the  uncensored  Amsterdam  edition  of  1645),  and  the  Jeru- 
shalmi  Palestinian  Talmud  Sanhedrin,  vii,  16,  relate  that  this 
special  procedure  of  concealing  witnesses  was  employed  against 
Jesus.  The  first  says:  “And  this  procedure,”  alluding  to  what 
was  mentioned  before,  “was  followed  in  regard  to  Ben  Satda, 
at  Lud,  and  they  hanged  him  on  the  day  before  Passover.” 
The  latter  says:  “Thus  they  did  to  Ben  Satda  at  Lud.  They 
concealed  two  witnesses  and  then  they  brought  him  to  court 
and  stoned  him.”  The  identification  of  Ben  Satda  and  Jesus 
is  assumed  by  the  Talmud  to  be  certain.  The  meaning  of  the 


EPILOGUE 


205 


According  to  the  Christian  sources,  Judas’  act  of 
treachery  consisted  in  this:  that  he  pointed  Jesus 
out  to  his  accusers  by  giving  him  a  kiss  of  homage 
while  surrounded  by  his  disciples  and  the  masses.  It 
is  strange,  however,  that  such  a  stratagem  should  be 
employed  to  identify  a  man  who,  according  to  the 
self-same  accounts,  had  entered  Jerusalem  in  tri¬ 
umphal  procession  and  preached  openly  in  the  Tem¬ 
ple!  As  soon  as  Jesus  was  seized  by  the  soldiers, 
almost  all  of  his  disciples  left  him  and  sought  safety 
in  flight ;  Simon  Peter  was  the  only  one  who  re¬ 
mained.  At  daybreak,  on  the  14th  of  Nissan, 
namely,  on  the  eve  of  the  Feast  of  Unleavened  Bread, 
Jesus  was  brought  before  the  Synhedrion.  It  seems 
that  the  tribunal,  before  which  he  was  brought  to 
trial,  was  not  the  great  Synhedrion,  but  the  smaller 
one,  composed  of  twenty-three  members,  for  the  one 
who  presided  at  the  trial  was  not  the  President  of 
the  Synhedrion,  a  member  of  the  house  of  Hillel,  but 
Joseph  Caiaphas,  the  High  Priest.  The  purpose  of 
the  trial  was  to  determine  whether  Jesus  really  con¬ 
sidered  himself  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  as  the  witnesses 
had  testified.  It  is  rather  unbelievable  that  he  was 
tried,  as  the  Gospels  relate  (Matt,  xxvi,  61),  be¬ 
cause  he  was  supposed  to  have  boasted  that  he  was 

word  Satda,  is  not  known.  The  etymological  derivation  which 
the  Talmud  gives  in  loco,  as  well  as  in  Sabbath,  104b  (un¬ 
censored  edition),  is  rather  odd.  If  we  take  into  consideration 
the  fact  that  during  the  Second  Temple  trials  of  seducers 
occurred  very  seldom  or  probably  not  at  all,  we  are  inclined 
to  believe  that  the  halachah  in  the  above-quoted  Mishnah  and 
the  Baraitha  are  the  only  authentic  sources  in  the  Talmud 
concerning  Jesus. 


206 


EPILOGUE . 


able  to  destroy  the  Temple  and  build  it  up  again  in 
three  days.  Such  an  assertion,  if  really  made  by 
him,  could  not  have  been  the  object  of  an  arraign¬ 
ment.  The  accusation  doubtless  pointed  to  the  sin 
of  blasphemy  ( Gidduf-blasphemia ) ,  and  to  the  sup¬ 
posed  affirmation  of  Jesus  that  he  was  the  Son  of 
God.23  To  the  direct  question  as  to  that  point, 
Jesus  gave  no  answer  and  remained  silent.  When 
the  President  repeated  the  question  and  asked  him 
if  he  were  the  Son  of  God,  he  answered,  “Thou  hast 
said  it,”  24  and  added,  “Hereafter  shall  ye  see  the 
Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power  and 
coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven”  (Matt,  xxvi,  24). 
On  hearing  this  assertion,  the  judges  concluded  that 
he  believed  himself  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  The  High 
Priest  rent  his  garments,  and  the  Court  condemned 
him  to  death  as  a  blasphemer.25  From  the  accounts 
of  the  Christian  sources,  we  cannot  infer  that  ac- 

23  Matthew  xxvi,  63.  It  is  rather  strange  that  the  Gospels 
state  that  the  witnesses  who  testified  against  Jesus  had  given 
false  testimony,  while  the  Gospels  themselves  describe  Jesus 
as  repeatedly  asserting  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  and  this 
was  just  what  the  witnesses  accused  him  of. 

24  The  Gospel  writers  themselves  did  not  know  how  J esus 
answered  the  questions  directed  at  him  by  the  Court.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  Matthew  xxvi,  64,  the  answer  was:  “Thou  hast  said  it,” 
which  may  mean,  “yes,”  as  well  as  “no.”  According  to  Luke 
xxii,  69,  the  answer  was:  “Ye  say  that  I  am,”  and  according  to 
Mark  xiv,  69,  his  answer  was:  “I  am  he.”  According  to  John, 
Jesus  confessed  to  the  charge  and  pointed  to  his  public  activity 
— a  rather  suspicious  move. 

25  The  three  Synoptic  Gospels  all  agree  that  the  Court  con¬ 
demned  him  on  the  charge  of  blasphemy.  The  fact  that  the 
President  rent  his  garments,  Matthew  xxvi,  65;  Mark  xiv, 
63-65,  testifies  to  it,  for  the  Sanhedrin,  ch.  vii,  Mishnas,  10-11, 


EPILOGUE 


207 


cording  to  the  existing  penal  laws,  the  judges  had 
pronounced  an  unjust  sentence  against  him.  The 
evidence  was  against  him.  The  Synhedrion  received 
the  sanction  of  the  sentence,  or  rather  the  permis¬ 
sion  to  carry  out  the  execution  from  Pontius  Pilate, 
the  Procurator,  who  happened  then  to  be  in  Jerusa¬ 
lem. 

Pilate,  before  whom  Jesus  was  brought,  asked  him 
about  the  political  side  of  his  activity,  whether  he, 
as  Messiah,  had  also  declared  himself  King  of  the 
Jews,  and  when  Jesus  gave  the  ambiguous  answer, 
“Thou  hast  said  it,”  Pilate  confirmed  the  sentence.26 
The  story  reported  in  the  Gospels  that  Pilate  had 
found  him  innocent  but  that  the  Jews  had  insistently 
clamored  for  his  death,  is  legendary.27  When  Jesus 

requires  such  action  on  hearing  the  name  of  God  blasphemed. 
Even  John  xix,  7,  says  that  Jesus  was  condemned  according 
to  law,  for  he  had  declared  himself  as  the  Son  of  God. 

26  Three  Synoptic  Gospels,  Matthew  xxvii,  11;  Mark  xv,  2; 
Luke  xxii,  3,  report  Jesus’  answer  to  Pilate  as  the  same  he  gave 
to  the  High  Priest:  “Thou  hast  said  it,”  which  is  ambiguous. 
John  xviii,  34 f,  makes  him  deny  the  assertion  by  asking  Pilate 
a  counter  question,  “Sayest  thou  this  thing  of  thyself  or  did 
others  tell  it  to  thee  of  me?”  and  adding  to  it  the  declaration, 
“My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world.” 

27  Only  Matthew  xxvii,  24,  reports  that  Pilate  poured  water 
on  Jesus’  hands  as  a  sign  of  his  innocence  and  that  the  dream 
of  Pilate’s  wife  was  the  cause  of  his  believing  Jesus  guiltless. 
But  the  washing  of  the  hands  was  a  Jewish  custom,  prescribed 
in  the  case  of  a  man  found  murdered  and  the  perpetrator  of 
the  crime  not  having  been  discovered.  Hence  Pilate,  as  a 
Roman  general,  could  not  have  employed  it.  Rightly  have 
Kortlin  and  Hilgenfeld  observed  that  this  passage  must  have 
been  inserted  by  a  later  follower  of  Paul,  who  wanted  to 
demonstrate  that  the  pagan  Pilate  and  his  wife  were  more 
favorably  inclined  toward  Jesus  than  the  Jews. 


208 


EPILOGUE 


was  scoffed  at,  and  obliged  to  wear  the  crown  of 
thorns  in  ironical  allusion  to  the  Messianic  and  royal 
dignity  he  had  assumed,  it  was  not  the  Jews  who  in¬ 
flicted  the  indignities  upon  him,  but  the  Roman  sol¬ 
diers,  who  sought  through  him  to  deride  the  Jewish 
nation.  The  Jewish  judges  manifested  so  little  per¬ 
sonal  animosity  toward  Jesus  that  they  gave  him, 
as  they  gave  to  every  other  criminal,  the  cup  of  wine 
mixed  with  frankincense,  in  order  to  render  him  in¬ 
sensible  to  pains  of  death.28  According  to  the  then 
existing  penal  laws,  a  blasphemer  was  first  to  be 
stoned  and  after  his  death,  to  be  hanged  for  a  short 
time  on  a  tree.29  Jesus  was  executed  in  this  manner. 
But  the  Christian  sources  would  have  us  believe  that 
he  was  crucified  at  nine  in  the  morning,  and  that  his 
torture  lasted  for  six  hours,  until  three  in  the  after¬ 
noon,  when  he  expired.  His  last  words  were  a  quota¬ 
tion  from  the  Psalms,  in  the  Aramaic  dialect:  “My 
God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me”  (“Eli,  eli, 

28  Matthew  xxvii,  24,  and  parallel  passages.  This  cup  of 
wormwood  wine  was  prescribed  by  the  Law  as  an  act  of  mercy. 
(Ebel  Rabbatai  or  Semachoth,  ch.  xi,  9;  Sanhedrin,  43a.) 
In  the  Gospels,  however,  it  is  described  as  an  act  of  cruelty 
against  Jesus.  The  Gospels  also  differ  in  regard  to  the  liquid 
in  question.  Mark  says,  in  agreement  with  the  Talmud,  that 
it  consisted  of  wine  and  myrrh  or  frankincense.  Matthew  be¬ 
lieves  it  to  have  been  vinegar  and  gall.  The  other  writers  do 
not  mention  the  incident  at  all. 

29  In  the  Mishnah  Sanhedrin,  ch.  v,  7,  stoning  and  post¬ 
mortem  hanging  is  the  prescribed  punishment  for  blasphemy 
and  idolatry.  And  doubtless  Jesus  was  executed  in  the  same 
way.  The  Gospels,  however,  do  not  mention  stoning,  but  speak 
of  crucifixion,  and  that  as  having  been  carried  out  before  his 
death,  which  is  certainly  untrue. 


EPILOGUE 


209 


lama  shebaktani”)  ?  The  Roman  soldiers  placed,  in 
mockery,  the  following  inscription  upon  the  cross: 
“ Jesus  of  Nazareth,  King  of  the  Jews.”  The  cruci¬ 
fixion  and  the  burial  of  the  body  probably  took  place 
outside  of  the  town,  on  a  spot  by  the  name  of  Gol¬ 
gotha,  the  place  of  the  skulls,  reserved  for  the  burial 
of  condemned  criminals.  How  great  was  the  woe 
caused  by  that  execution !  It  was  the  indirect  cause 
of  innumerable  deaths  and  interminable  suffering 
among  millions  of  the  sons  of  his  people.  Millions 
of  broken  hearts  and  tragic  fates  have  not  yet  atoned 
for  his  death.  He  is  the  only  mortal  of  whom  it  can 
be  truthfully  said  that  he  influenced  the  world  more 
by  his  death  than  by  his  life.  Golgotha,  the  place  of 
skulls,  became  for  a  great  part  of  humanity,  a  new 
Sinai.30 

The  Jewish  historian,  in  continuing  his  narrative, 
shows  how,  as  a  result  of  the  Pauline  trend  of 
thought,  which  inclined  toward  the  pagan  view  of 
life,  there  arose,  already  in  the  primitive  Church, 
sects  and  difference  of  opinion,  traces  of  which  are 
to  be  recognized  in  the  Gospel  writings,  the  most 
ancient  of  which  was  composed,  as  late  as  the  time 
of  Bar  Kochba  (132-133).  In  order  to  conquer  the 
pagan  world,  the  daughter  of  Judaism  was  forced  to 
make  greater  concessions  to  paganism  than  the  latter 
made  to  Judaism. 

Christianity  represents  a  departure  from  the  clas¬ 
sical  essence  of  both  Judaism  and  Paganism.  The 
Jewish  view  of  the  world  was,  and  is,  that  the  uni- 
30  Graetz,  History ,  Yol.  III.  German  edition. 


210 


EPILOGUE 


verse  is  a  sacred  creation  of  one  Supreme  Being.  To 
Paganism,  in  its  typical  classical  form,  which  reached 
its  culmination  in  the  Greek  spirit,  the  divine  unity, 
present  in  the  world,  appeared  only  as  a  product  of 
the  harmonious  combination  of  multiple  and  various 
universal  forces.  The  creative  essence  of  Judaism 
did  not  disappear  with  its  created  classical  culture, 
because  the  Jewish  creative  genius  did  not  exhaust 
itself  in  its  creation.  Classical  Paganism,  however, 
saw  its  genius  disappear  with  its  culture,  the  roots 
of  which  lay  only  on  the  surface  of  life,  and  which 
were  consequently  swept  away  by  the  tide  of  bar¬ 
barous  tribes  which  flooded  the  ancient  world  during 
the  closing  period  of  antiquity.  To  the  pagans,  who 
saw  the  gradual  disappearance  of  their  own  creative 
genius,  along  with  the  environment  wherein  it  acted, 
it  appeared,  one  day,  that  the  divine  harmony  of  the 
pluralistic  world  is  no  more  divine  and  sacred  but 
God-forsaken,  and,  finally,  Paganism  sought  refuge 
in  its  opposite,  the  creative  spirit  of  Judaism.  On 
the  other  hand,  only  such  Jews  could  satisfy  the 
religious  cravings  of  the  Pagan  world  as  had  es¬ 
tranged  themselves  from  their  own  world  and  were 
able  to  merge  with  the  pagan  environment  so  as  to 
draw  it  along  with  themselves  to  the  spirit  which  ani¬ 
mated  them — such  Jews  as  did  not  look  upon  them¬ 
selves  as  chosen  children  of  a  holy  Being,  but  only  as 
sinners  and  apostates.  Thus  there  arose  the  double 
separation  of  the  worldly  element  from  the  divine 
in  Judaism  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  divine  from 
the  worldly  element  in  Paganism  on  the  other;  and 


EPILOGUE 


211 


as  a  result  of  the  combination  of  a  Judaism  devoid 
of  its  element  of  worldliness  and  a  Godless  Paganism, 
there  was  born  the  Christian  view,  according  to 
which  a  Jewish  saint  in  the  garb  of  a  pagan  man, 
had  come  to  raise  and  prepare  the  nations  for  a 
better,  divine  world  which,  however,  possesses  all 
the  characteristics  of  other-worldliness. 

This  other-worldliness,  in  the  course  of  historical 
development,  in  the  measure  that  the  nations  ap¬ 
proached  the  Jewish  historical  religion,  assumed  more 
and  more  of  a  secular  character.  And  the  more 
Jewish,  the  more  humane  the  pagan  world  became, 
the  more  could  Jews  participate  in  the  culture  of 
this  world  and  contribute  to  its  progress.  And 
finally,  when,  after  the  long  struggle  between  the 
pagan  world  of  sensuality  and  barbarous  force,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  spiritual,  mystic,  Jewish  view 
on  the  other,  the  sun  of  modem  humanitarian  civili¬ 
zation  shed  its  feeble  rays  upon  a  better  and  more 
perfect  world,  it  was  a  Jew  who  was  able  to  signal 
to  the  world  that  the  final  stage  of  the  process  of 
human  development  has  begun. 

III.  The  Genetic  View  of  the  World 

Inasmuch  as  Spinoza’s  Works  have  already  been 
translated  into  Hebrew,  the  time  has  come  when  we 
must  defend  this  great  Jewish  teacher  against  mis¬ 
representation  on  the  part  of  Jewish  scholars.  The 
objection  raised  by  Luzzato  against  Spinoza  proves 
only  that  this  great  Hebrew  scholar  has  wandered 
into  a  field  in  which  he  is  a  total  stranger.  The 


212 


EPILOGUE 


teaching  of  Spinoza,  which  derives  the  entire  spirit¬ 
ual-moral  system  of  life  from  the  single  idea  of  God 
as  the  ground  of  Nature  and  Thought,  and  which 
assigns  the  Knowledge  of  God  as  the  highest  aim  of 
life,  reconciles  the  apparent  contradiction  between 
philosophy  and  experimental  science  on  the  one  hand 
and  between  reason  and  feeling  on  the  other.  Luz- 
zato,  who  charges  the  system  of  Spinoza,  which  is  an 
immediate  outflow  of  the  Creative  Spirit  with  a  lack 
of  emotion,  calling  it  a  system  of  dry  reason,  dis¬ 
plays  only  his  own  ignorance  of  the  true  nature  of 
these  problems  and  of  their  masterly  solution  by 
Spinoza. 

The  basic  idea  of  the  system  of  Spinoza,  namely, 
that  God  is  the  only  substance,  the  ground  and  origin 
of  all  being,  is  the  fundamental  expression  of  the 
Jewish  genius,  which  has  ever  manifested  itself  in 
divine  revelations  from  the  time  of  Moses  and  the 
Prophets,  down  to  modern  days.  These  manifesta¬ 
tions  of  the  Jewish  genius  are  not  a  supernatural 
phenomenon,  but  form  a  part  of  the  great  eternal 
Law  which  governs  all  three  life  spheres,  the  cosmic, 
organic  and  social.  The  special  field  of  operation 
of  the  Jewish  genius,  however,  is  the  social  sphere, 
and  it  is  due  to  it  that  a  unified  historical  develop¬ 
ment  of  humanity  was  made  possible.  The  revela¬ 
tions  of  the  Jewish  spirit  express  the  universal  law 
in  its  entirety ;  its  past  workings  as  well  as  its  future 
operations,  using  the  scientific  formula  of  to-day  with 
the  same  facility  as  formerly  the  proofs  of  imagina¬ 
tion  and  feeling. 


EPILOGUE 


213 


The  Jewish  view,  which  sees  in  the  world  of  Na¬ 
ture  and  life  the  continual  operation  of  one  creative 
force,  is  confirmed  by  observation.  We  cannot  fail 
to  conceive  in  any  created  phenomenon  in  Nature,  or 
in  the  sphere  of  spirit,  the  immediate  influence  of  the 
Creator.  Those  who  try  to  avoid  this  conclusion, 
explaining  the  rise  of  beings  as  only  a  result  of  a 
mere  mechanical  operation  of  the  law  of  cause  and 
effect,  and  oppose  to  the  theory  of  creation  that  of 
the  eternity  of  matter,  will  find  it  difficult  to  uphold 
their  view.  The  hypothesis  of  the  eternity  of  the 
atoms  of  matter  and  of  their  rigidity  and  unchange¬ 
ability  does  not  explain  all  phenomena  of  the  behavior 
of  matter  under  certain  conditions,  and  is  gradually 
giving  way  to  the  genetic  view,  which  sees  everywhere 
only  movements  and  no  fixed  atoms  nor  any  stable 
cosmic  ether.  Chemical  atoms  have  not  existed  from 
eternity,  but,  like  organic  germs,  were  once  generated 
and  are  subject  to  the  great  law  of  growth  and  decay. 
They  arose  through  the  act  of  creation,  by  the  same 
act  which  successively  calls  into  existence  every  being, 
and  continues  to  form  centers  of  gravity,  which  in 
the  cosmic  world  we  name  atoms ;  in  the  organic, 
germs;  and  in  the  social,  revelations. 

Creation,  however,  does  not  mean  the  forming  of 
new  elements,  but  only  a  new  arrangement  of  existing 
materials.  Every  creation  is  a  combination  of  two 
opposite  movements  into  a  new,  balanced  and  more 
perfect  one.  The  cosmic  rotation  of  the  planetary 
bodies,  which  is  the  result  of  two  opposite  movements, 
the  centripetal  and  the  centrifugal,  is  an  excellent 


214 


EPILOGUE 


illustration  of  this  form  of  combination.  A  spiritual 
creation  is,  similarly,  a  combination  of  two  preceding 
mental  tendencies  into  a  new  synthesis.  Every  phy¬ 
sical  creation  presupposes  the  eternal  Creator,  and 
every  spiritual  creation  an  inspiration,  which  is  only 
a  channel  through  which  the  immediate  influences  of 
the  Creator  are  conveyed.  Religion  is  the  greatest 
and  the  highest  of  such  inspirations.  Can  we,  then, 
doubt  its  teaching  of  the  existence  of  a  creative  ele¬ 
ment  in  life,  which  is  evidenced  by  experience  and 
science;  or  shall  we  name  it  supernatural,  an  excep¬ 
tion  to  the  eternal  law?  It  requires  extraordinary 
reason  to  do  so. 

The  creative  process  in  the  social  life-sphere  oper¬ 
ates  according  to  a  well-formed  plan,  which  is  gradu¬ 
ally  being  unfolded  in  history,  just  as  a  similar  plan 
was  previously  developed  in  Nature.  Spiritual  crea¬ 
tions,  like  the  organic,  have  their  paleontological  and 
modern  epochs,  the  last  stage  of  which  is  the  age  of 
maturity,  in  which  the  development  of  social  life  will 
come  to  completion.  The  coming  of  the  future  epoch 
of  social  life  will  be  hastened  by  the  efforts  and 
energy  of  the  Jews,  who  have  a  special  calling  for 
conveying  to  the  world  revelations  affecting  the  social 
life-sphere. 

The  typical  expression  of  the  Jewish  genius,  the 
genetic  view,  is  essentially  one  with  all  its  representa¬ 
tives,  with  Moses  and  the  Prophets  as  well  as  with 
Spinoza.  The  first  do  not  contradict  modern  science, 
their  views  are  only  divergent  and  different  in  exter¬ 
nal  form  from  that  of  science  but  not  contradictory 


EPILOGUE 


215 


to  it.  Nor  is  Spinoza’s  teaching  contradictory  to 
Jewish  Monotheism.  What  Jewish  revelation  em¬ 
phasized  most  is  the  unity  of  the  creative  spirit,  in 
opposition  to  the  plurality  of  forces ;  and  this  idea 
has  been  expressed  clearly  also  by  Spinoza.  The 
Bible,  stripped  of  its  anthropomorphic  expressions, 
does  not  offer  a  single  point  which  expressly  con¬ 
tradicts  the  teachings  of  Spinoza.  Moses  himself 
says  that  the  Knowledge  of  God  is  not  found  either 
in  heaven  or  in  the  distances  of  space,  but  that  the 
real  revelation  of  God  takes  place  within  ourselves, 
in  our  spirit  and  heart.  A  similar  expression  occurs 
in  the  Talmud.  “The  Holy  Presence  never  descended 
to  earth,  nor  did  Moses  ascend  to  heaven.”  Must 
we  consider  the  anthropomorphic  expressions  of  the 
Bible  as  dogmas?  If  so,  they  will  finally  undermine 
the  fundamental  dogma  of  Jewish  teaching  which  is 
so  clearly  enunciated  in  the  Shema.  Nor  is  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  the  eternity  of  the  spirit  to  be  misunder¬ 
stood.  The  eternity  of  the  spirit  does  not  begin 
after  death,  but  is,  like  God,  always  present. 

An  external  God,  who  does  not  manifest  himself 
to  men  as  an  immediate  ever-present  Creator,  is  not 
the  God  of  the  Jews,  Christians  and  Mohammedans, 
and  can  become  as  little  the  religious  ground  of  the 
regenerated  nations  as  pagan  Polytheism  and  Pan¬ 
theism.  A  Godhead,  of  whom  we  know  nothing,  is 
without  influence  on  our  social,  spiritual  and  moral 
life.  It  is  only  the  creative  God  who  will  be  the  God 
of  the  age  of  maturity  of  the  social  life.  The  ration¬ 
alistic  view  of  life  suits  only  the  now  antiquated  form 


216 


EPILOGUE 


of  Society,  which  is  at  present  in  the  process  of  dis¬ 
solution.  Just  as  modern  Nationalism  is  a  reflection 
of  the  spirit  of  revolution,  so  is  modern  rationalistic 
supernaturalism  a  spiritual  reflection  of  the  reaction 
against  the  progressive  social  tendencies. 

IV.  The  Last  Antagonism 

In  order  to  estimate  truly  the  spiritual  attitudes 
toward  life  we  must  take  into  account  the  social 
movements  of  which  they  are  the  result.  The  present 
day  philosophical  point  of  view  differs  essentially 
from  that  held  during  the  last  century.  Not  only 
has  science  made  tremendous  progress  during  this 
time,  but  it  has  been  greatly  influenced  by  philo¬ 
sophical  criticism  and  speculation,  just  as  industry 
has  been  essentially  affected  by  democratic  revolution 
and  the  development  of  capitalism.  The  field  of  bat¬ 
tle,  the  struggle  itself  and  the  contending  forces 
have  been  changed  in  the  historical  course  of  the 
social  movement,  which  began  in  the  last  century  and 
which  we  are  still  continuing.  The  speculative  philos¬ 
opher  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  as  little  sym¬ 
pathy  with  the  revolutionary  philosopher  of  the 
eighteenth  as  the  liberal  citizen  of  to-day  has  for  the 
revolutionist  of  that  time.  The  oppressed  industrial 
producers  of  the  last  century  are  the  lordly  specula¬ 
tors  of  our  present-day  Society.  And  even  within 
the  productive  class  itself,  a  thorough  process  of 
separation  between  its  constituent  elements  has  taken 
place.  The  last  resolution,  that  which  we  are  now 
witnessing,  could  not,  therefore,  have  previously  ere- 


EPILOGUE 


217 


ated  a  perfected  organization.  The  old,  rigid  insti¬ 
tutions  of  feudal  Society  and  the  last  dead  residue 
of  dogmatism  must  first  be  dissected  by  the  sharp 
knife  of  criticism  and  analysis,  into  its  elements, 
before  new  social  and  spiritual  creations  can  come 
into  being.  In  the  course  of  the  development  of  new 
elements  there  came  to  the  front  a  new  antagonism 
which  did  not  exist  before,  and  the  reconciliation  of 
which  is  at  present  under  discussion.  The  forces  of 
labor  in  the  industrial  world  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  investigators  in  the  scientific  field,  on  the  other, 
liberated  from  the  bonds  of  feudalism  and  dogma¬ 
tism  alike,  have  brought  forth  the  last  antagonism, 
namely,  the  one  between  labor  and  speculation.1  In 
the  revolutionary  atmosphere  of  free  competition  of 
all  labor  forces,  there  were  formed  centers  of  gravity 
which  will  ultimately  absorb  the  individual  produc¬ 
tive  forces  and  organize  them  for  their  own  purpose. 
Following  the  law  of  Gravitation,  the  fundamental 
law  of  all  life,  the  single  atoms  of  laborers  grouped 
themselves  around  industrial,  and  the  individual  in¬ 
vestigators  around  speculative  centers.  Not  only  in 
the  sphere  of  industry  but  even  in  the  field  of  sci¬ 
ence,  it  is  no  light  task  to  oppose  the  attractive  force 
of  the  speculative  centers. 

In  merely  negating  the  speculative  system,  as  in 

i  The  words  “labor”  and  “speculation”  used  by  Hess  here, 
are  employed  in  a  double  sense.  Labor  in  the  industrial  sense, 
as  an  economic  factor,  and  labor  as  equivalent  to  investigation 
and  experimentation.  The  first  is  opposed  to  “speculation”  in 
its  economic  meaning,  the  second  to  “speculation”  in  its  philo¬ 
sophic  meaning,  namely,  theorizing. — Translator. 


218 


EPILOGUE 


merely  destroying  accumulated  capital,  we  will  gain 
but  little;  for  all  life  has  a  natural  tendency  toward 
centralization,  combination  and  organization.  If  the 
real  producers  earnestly  desire  to  free  themselves 
from  the  exploitation  of  the  speculators,  they  must, 
following  the  successful  attempt  of  English  working¬ 
men,  oppose  to  the  mass  of  accumulated  labor  in  the 
hands  of  the  captains  of  industry,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  in  the  heads  of  the  philosophic  speculators  on 
the  other,  the  larger  mass  of  the  individual  produc¬ 
tions,  as  well  as  the  results  of  investigations  in  the 
scientific  field.  This  applies  to  scientific  material  as 
well  as  to  industrial.  Materials  are  only  dead  cap¬ 
ital  when  they  are  not  organized  for  further  creation 
and  production.  The  same  law  governing  all  pro¬ 
ductive  life  movements  serve  also  for  further  crea¬ 
tions  out  of  the  already  gained  materials.  The  so- 
called  indestructibility  of  matter  is  nothing  but  the 
persistence  of  the  productive  force  inherent  in  mat¬ 
ter  even  in  its  dissolution  and  decomposition.  Should 
the  industrial  and  intellectual  workers  remain  in  indi¬ 
vidual  isolation;  should  they  not  centralize  and  or¬ 
ganize  their  scattered  forces  and  become  speculative 
in  a  cooperative  way,  the  antagonism  between  labor 
and  speculation  will,  of  necessity,  remain  stationary. 

The  final  theoretical  antagonism  which  can  in  some 
measure  be  overcome,  namely,  that  between  philoso¬ 
phy  and  the  experimental  sciences,  between  material¬ 
ism  and  idealism,  is  nothing  but  the  theoretical  ex¬ 
pression  of  the  practical  antagonism  in  social  life. 
The  same  attitude  that  the  master  displayed  toward 


EPILOGUE 


219 


the  slave,  the  priest  toward  the  uninitiated,  and 
later,  the  feudal  lord  toward  the  serf,  the  clerical 
toward  the  secular,  is  finally  assumed  to-day  by  the 
capitalist  toward  the  workingman,  the  philosopher 
toward  the  investigator,  namely,  the  attitude  of  the 
organized  toward  the  unorganized  and  of  the  strong 
toward  the  weak.  The  people  fall  short  in  regard 
to  the  reconciliation  of  this  antagonism.  Such  an 
attitude  leads  only  to  decomposition  and  death,  and 
therefore  Moses  exclaimed  to  our  people  “Ye  shall 
be  unto  me  a  kingdom  of  priests  and  a  holy  people.5’2 

As  industrial  speculation,  so  philosophical  specu¬ 
lation,  is  a  historical  necessity,  and  its  existence  is 
justified,  as  long  as  the  productive  labors  and  investi¬ 
gations  are  not  centralized  and  organized,  as  long 
as  they  have  not  their  own  center  of  gravity  and 
equilibrium.  “Absolute”  speculation  represented,  be¬ 
fore  the  revolutionary  critical  epoch,  a  governing, 
compelling  force.  After  this  period,  it  is  only  a  con¬ 
trolling  power,  strange  and  hostile  in  its  attitude 
toward  material  labor.  The  root  of  this  antagonism, 
however,  lies  not  in  the  malice  of  this  or  that  class, 
but  is  inherent  in  the  history  of  the  development  of 
the  human  race  which,  as  long  as  it  has  not  reached 
its  aim,  the  age  of  maturity,  must  pass  toward  its 
goal  through  race  and  class  struggles,  just  as  the 
human  individual,  while  in  the  midst  of  his  mental 
development,  is  dominated  by  one-sided  representa¬ 
tions  and  tendencies. 

In  the  course  of  human  history,  only  one-sided 
2  Exodus  xix,  6. 


220 


EPILOGUE 


movements  have  arisen  in  social  life,  the  influences  of 
which  have  helped  to  engender  one-sided  views,  repre¬ 
sentations  and  conceptions.  During  the  development 
of  organic  or  social  life,  there  occurs  always  a  divi¬ 
sion  of  labor  among  the  various  parts  of  the  organ¬ 
isms  which  brings  forth,  along  with  the  perfection 
of  special  functions,  a  certain  narrowness  and  one¬ 
sidedness.  In  human  life,  this  tendency  often  degen¬ 
erates  into  a  kind  of  monomania,  the  effects  of  which 
are  harmful  to  the  human  spirit.  But  when  the  per¬ 
fected  organism  of  the  historical  races  reaches  its 
final  stage  of  development,  the  various  strivings  of 
history  will  also  reach  their  ultimate  harmony  in  a 
perfected  human  society.  Just  as  only  after  the  com¬ 
pletion  of  the  organic  life-sphere,  namely,  after  the 
creation  of  man,  the  Sabbath  of  Nature  began,  so 
will  the  historical  Sabbath  begin  only  after  the  com¬ 
pletion  of  the  development  of  social  life,  after  the 
creation  of  a  harmonious  social  organization  in 
which  production  and  consumption  will  be  in  a  state 
of  equilibrium.  We  stand  at  present  on  the  eve  of 
the  historical  Sabbath.  Our  age  is  still  the  age  of 
speculation.  But  speculation  can,  by  its  very  nature, 
be  the  inheritance  of  only  a  minority.  What,  then, 
of  the  majority? 

Every  life-sphere,  which  has  reached  the  comple¬ 
tion  of  its  development,  insures  the  continuity  of  its 
existence,  first,  by  means  of  reproduction,  and,  sec¬ 
ondly,  by  establishing  an  equilibrium  between  pro¬ 
duction  and  consumption.  The  social  life-sphere 
also  will  enter  upon  its  age  of  maturity  from  the 


Epilogue 


221 

foment  when  this  point  of  view  prevails  in  the  social 
economic  movement.  Where  this  point  of  view  is 
only  shared  by  a  few  individuals,  who  utilize  it  for 
private  purposes,  the  age  is  dominated  by  specula¬ 
tion.  The  essence  of  speculation  consists  in  the  ex¬ 
ploitation  of  the  reproductive  sources  of  social  life 
for  private  purposes. 

Life  in  general  is  a  producing  and  consuming 
activity.  Science  is  universal  economics  which  inves¬ 
tigates  and  determines  the  amount  and  degree  of  pro¬ 
duction  and  consumption  in  the  various  life-spheres 
and  epochs.  Physiology  is  the  economics  of  the  or¬ 
ganic  life-sphere,  and  social  economy  is  the  physiol¬ 
ogy  of  Society.  The  latter  science  shows  us  that 
social  life  is  still  in  its  childhood  epoch.  Between 
the  stage  of  embryonic  life,  through  which  Society 
had  passed,  and  the  stage  of  maturity  and  indepen¬ 
dence,  upon  which  it  will  enter,  there  lies  the  gap 
which  we  can  hardly  bridge,  namely,  the  revolution¬ 
ary  critical  epoch,  which  gave  birth  to  modern  Soci¬ 
ety,  the  period  which  made  possible  the  independence 
of  future  social  life  from  the  past  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  a  creative  Society.  What  revolution 
does  for  life,  criticism  accomplishes  for  ideas  and 
views.  It  unfastens  the  chains  of  traditional  repre¬ 
sentations  which  hold  the  present  in  the  grip  of  the 
past,  opens  the  way  toward  a  new  independent  life, 
and,  like  revolution,  considers  itself  independent  of 
the  creative  being  itself,  which  tradition  has  repre¬ 
sented  as  extra-mundane,  as  long  as  it  has  not  redis¬ 
covered  that  creative  being  in  the  world  itself.  Most 


222 


EPILOGUE 


of  our  contemporaries  continue  to  attack  the  external 
“absolute”  of  tradition,  but  they  do  not  discover  the 
real  “Absolute,”  the  creative  center  of  all  life,  namely, 
the  equilibrium  and  harmony  of  all  spiritual  forces. 
The  few  that  have  dared  to  make  such  a  step  were 
finally  lost  in  speculation. 

Just  as  the  new-born  babe  is  not  entirely  indepen¬ 
dent  of  its  mother,  as  long  as  it  is  still  being  nour¬ 
ished  by  her,  so  social  life  cannot  be  considered  eman¬ 
cipated  until  it  has  outgrown  the  nursing  period. 
The  philosophical  and  industrial  forms  of  specula¬ 
tion  employed  by  spiritual  and  material  capitalists 
and  dominating  the  fields  of  scientific  and  industrial 
labor,  are  the  two  breasts  which  nourish  our  Society, 
and  as  a  result,  the  child  —  Labor  —  is  strongly 
bound  to  its  mother — Capital, — the  creative  spirit 
is  chained  to  the  former  traditional  achievements ; 
and  finally,  the  new  Society  is  made  subject  to  its 
ancient  ghost.  It  is,  therefore,  the  task  of  the  intel¬ 
lectual,  as  well  as  the  industrial  workers,  to  liberate 
themselves  from  the  domination  of  speculation.  Sci¬ 
entists  and  Socialists  should  work  hand  in  hand  for 
the  last  liberation  of  humanity,  for  the  emancipation 
of  all  forms  of  labor  from  speculation.  And  their 
efforts  will  certainly  be  successful,  for  we  see  that 
scientists  in  Germany  and  industrial  laborers  in  Eng¬ 
land  are  gradually  approaching  the  goal.  But  in 
Germany,  as  well  as  in  England,  these  efforts  are 
isolated;  the  impulse  to  unite  both  tendencies,  the 
scientific  and  the  industrial,  can  come  only  from 
the  land  of  modern  revolution  and  centralization — 


EPILOGUE 


223 


F ranee,  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the  Jewish  people 
on  the  other,  the  people  which  has,  from  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  its  history,  had  for  its  mission,  the  unity  of 
different  tendencies  of  social  life  into  one  center  of 
activity. 

If  Spinoza  laid  the  foundation  for  a  definite  recon¬ 
ciliation  between  the  two  typical  antithetical  expres¬ 
sions  of  the  human  genius  which  reached  their  culmi¬ 
nating  point  in  the  creations  of  the  Greeks  and  the 
Jews,  then  it  became  the  task  of  history  after  Spinoza 
to  develop  the  seed  which  he  had  sown,  into  a  definite 
reconciliation  of  all  antagonism  in  the  life  of  nations. 

German  philosophy  undoubtedly  rendered  a  great 
service  when  it  succeeded  in  overcoming,  on  the  basis 
laid  by  Spinoza’s  conception  of  Jewish  monotheism, 
the  opposition  of  atheism  to  theism,  which  was  ex¬ 
pressed  so  clearly  by  the  revolutionary  thinkers. 
But  at  the  same  time,  this  philosophy  lacked  a  posi¬ 
tive  foundation  in  life  and  experimental  science,  and 
as  a  result,  it  must  have  necessarily  come  into  con¬ 
flict  with  the  latter.  The  last  form  of  antagonism, 
which  is  still  to  be  reconciled,  is  not  the  one  between 
Monotheism  and  Polytheism,  as  in  antiquity,  nor 
between  Moslem  Monism  and  Christian  Dualism,  as 
in  the  Mediaeval  Ages,  nor  between  Theism  and  Athe¬ 
ism,  but  between  speculative  philosophy  and  experi¬ 
mental  science.  The  German  scientists  are  called  to 
the  mission  of  reconciling  this  last  form  of  antago¬ 
nism  by  work  like  Moleschott’s,  which  will  ultimately 
lead  to  the  merging  of  science  into  philosophy  and 
philosophy  into  science.  It  is  in  Germany,  where 


224 


EPILOGUE 


experimental  science  will  be  emancipated  by  means 
of  a  cooperative  activity  on  the  part  of  the  scien¬ 
tists,  to  gather  all  data  collected  in  different  fields 
and  interpret  them  from  a  general  point  of  view,  so 
as  to  bring  all  the  various  parts  into  a  harmonious, 
organic  whole. 

V.  The  Last  Race  Rule 

The  more  perfect  a  people  is  in  its  own  special 
calling,  the  more  it  appreciates  the  particular  serv¬ 
ices  of  other  peoples,  and  the  more  willingly  it  bor¬ 
rows  from  them  the  ideas,  conceptions  and  inventions 
which  are  necessary  to  modern  life.  This  tendency  is 
especially  noticeable  in  the  German  people  and  it  cer¬ 
tainly  does  honor  to  the  German  spirit. 

The  Jewish  nation,  therefore,  must  not  hesitate  to 
follow  France  in  all  matters  relating  to  the  political 
and  social  regeneration  of  the  nations,  and  especially 
in  what  concerns  its  own  rebirth  as  a  nation,  on  the 
one  hand,  arr'  in  everything  which  bears  upon  the 
revival  of  mu,  actual  life  in  Germany  on  the  other. 
Only  a  stupid  reaction,  which  is  consciously  or  un¬ 
consciously  swept  along  by  its  own  alarm,  can  bear 
us  malice  when  we  sympathize  with  F ranee  in  all  mat¬ 
ters  of  a  social,  political  nature,  and  yet  try  to 
absorb  and  assimilate  everything  good  in  German 
spiritual  and  intellectual  life. 

The  cause  of  national  regeneration  of  oppressed 
peoples  can  expect  no  help  and  sympathy  from  Ger¬ 
many.  The  problem  of  regeneration,  which  dates  not 
from  the  second  restoration  of  the  kingdom  in 


EPILOGUE 


225 


France,  but  goes  back  to  the  French  Revolution, 
the  definite  solution  of  which  began  in  Europe  only 
recently,  with  the  outbreak  of  the  Italian  war,  was 
received  in  Germany  with  mockery  and  derision ;  and 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  question  is  an  urgent  one 
and  is  uppermost  almost  everywhere,  even  in  Ger¬ 
many  itself,  the  Germans  have  named  it  the  “Nation- 
ality  trick.”  Our  Jewish  democrats,  also,  display 
their  patriotism  in  accusing  the  French  and  the  peo¬ 
ples  sympathizing  with  them,  of  conquering  designs. 
The  French,  say  the  German  politicians,  as  well  as 
the  allies,  will  only  be  exploited  by  the  second  Mon- 
archy,  for  purposes  of  restraining  liberty  rather 
than  promoting  it.  It  is,  therefore,  according  to  the 
deep  logic  of  these  politicians,  the  duty  of  the  Ger¬ 
man  to  be  obedient  to  the  Kaiser  and  the  kings,  in 
order  that  they  should  be  able  to  defeat  the  con¬ 
quering  desires  of  the  French.  These  politicians  and 
patriots  forget,  that  if  Germany  were  to  conquer 
France  and  Italy  to-day,  it  would  only  result  in 
placing  the  entire  German  people  under  police  law; 
and  in  depriving  the  Jews  of  their  civil  rights,  in  a 
worse  manner  than  after  the  “War  of  Liberation,” 
when  the  only  reward  granted  by  the  Germans  to 
their  Jewish  brethren  in  arms  was  exclusion  from 
civil  life.  And,  truly,  the  German  people  and  the 
German  Jews  do  not  deserve  any  better  lot  when 
they  allow  themselves,  in  spite  of  the  examples  of 
history,  to  be  entrapped  by  Mediaeval  reaction. 

Scientific  studies,  together  with  my  life  experi¬ 
ences,  have  matured  my  political  sympathies  for 


226 


EPILOGUE 


France,  especially  after  I  learned  to  know  the  people. 
I  have  formulated  my  thoughts  in  the  following  sen¬ 
tences  : 

Social  life-tendencies  are,  like  spiritual  life-views, 
typical  and  primal  race  creations.  The  entire  past 
history  of  humanity  originally  moved  only  in  the 
circle  of  race  and  class  struggle.  The  race  struggle 
is  the  primal  one,  and  the  class  struggle  secondary. 
The  last  dominating  race  is  the  German.  But,  thanks 
to  the  French  people,  which  succeeded  not  only  in 
reconciling  race  antagonism  in  its  own  land,  but  also 
uprooted  every  form  of  race  domination  within  the 
borders  of  France,  the  race  struggle  is  nearing  its 
end.  And  along  with  the  cessation  of  race  antago¬ 
nism,  the  class  struggle  will  also  come  to  a  stand¬ 
still.  The  equalization  of  all  classes  of  Society  will 
necessarily  follow  the  emancipation  of  the  races,  for 
it  will  ultimately  become  only  a  scientific  question  of 
social  economics. 

Yet  it  seems  that  a  final  race  struggle  is  unavoid¬ 
able,  if  the  German  politicians,  failing  to  grasp  the 
situation,  do  not  attempt  to  oppose  the  tremendous 
current  of  reaction,  which  will  ultimately  involve 
Germany  in  a  collision  with  the  Romance  nations, 
and  will  also  entrap  the  progressive  German  demo¬ 
crats  in  the  net  of  Romantic  demagogy.  Mediaeval 
reaction  succeeded  twice  during  the  present  century, 
once  during  the  “War  of  Liberation,”  and  for  the 
second  time,  during  the  Italian  war,  in  defeating  the 
modern  efforts  of  the  German  people  for  political 
and  social  regeneration,  by  inflaming  the  race  domi- 


EPILOGUE 


227 


nance  instincts  in  the  hearts  of  the  lords  of  war,  who 
think  themselves  lords  of  the  land  by  divine  right,  ' 
and  consider  the  people  as  their  rightly  inherited 
slaves.  It  is  not  impossible,  that  in  case  of  a  war 
between  Italy  and  Austria,  German  democracy  will, 
for  the  third  time,  be  engulfed  by  the  whirl  of  reac¬ 
tion  and  join  her  in  a  war  for  race  dominance,  the 
results  of  which  will  be  detrimental  to  progress.  But 
out  of  the  last  race  struggle,  which  Ferdinand  Freili- 
grath  has  so  vividly  depicted  in  his  vision  “At  the 
Birch  Tree,”  there  will  arise  no  new  domination  of 
any  race,  and  the  equality  of  all  world  historical 
peoples  will  follow  as  a  necessary  result. 

VI.  A  Chapter  of  History 

Nations  like  individuals  pass,  in  the  course  of  their 
development,  through  certain  definite  life-periods. 
Not  every  age  is  adapted  for  every  stage  of  develop¬ 
ment;  but  every  age  has  its  particular  degree  of 
progress.  And  if  a  people  is  belated  in  its  develop¬ 
ment  or  has  missed  one  of  the  stages,  it  will  be  very 
difficult  for  it  to  follow  the  harmonious  march  of 
nations  toward  progress. 

Germany  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  occupied 
a  high  position  in  the  field  of  social  and  political 
development.  Even  the  masses  were  permeated  with 
the  spirit  of  social-political  reform,  the  like  of  which 
was  seen  only  in  England  in  the  seventeenth  century 
and  in  France  in  the  eighteenth.  The  sixteenth  cen¬ 
tury  was  the  epoch  of  the  German  Renaissance.  Ger¬ 
many,  during  that  period,  gave  birth  to  a  great  re- 


228 


EPILOGUE 


form,  but  inasmuch  as  it  did  not  succeed  in  becoming 
a  truly  national  reform,  it  only  divided  the  nation 
into  two.  The  political-social  revolution  of  the  peas¬ 
ants,  on  the  other  hand,  was  finally  drowned  in  their 
own  blood. 

Had  not  the  uprising  of  the  peasants  been  shame¬ 
fully  betrayed  by  the  leaders  of  German  culture  and 
civilization,  the  development  of  the  nation  would,  at 
that  time,  have  already  assumed  a  normal  form,  and 
not  only  would  Germany  be  the  equal  of  the  other 
civilized  nations,  but  as  the  first-born  modern  nation, 
would  have  held  the  most  prominent  place  among 
them. 

The  might  of  the  mediaeval  “German  Sword”  would 
have  been  transformed  into  the  nobler  and  higher 
force  of  the  modern  German  spirit.  The  nation  which 
overthrew  the  world  empire  of  Rome,  in  order  to 
substitute  for  it  the  mediaeval  feudal  power,  would 
have  been  the  first  to  give  the  signal  for  the  over¬ 
throw  of  its  own  institutions,  the  overthrow  of  the 
last  form  of  race  dominance.  But  Fate  willed  other¬ 
wise.  The  last  chosen  people,  like  the  first,  must 
atone  for  its  sins  before  it  is  granted  the  privilege 
of  leading  its  historical  role,  before  it  will  be  worthy 
to  enter  into  the  modern  alliance  of  humanity,  which 
is  based  on  the  equality  of  all  historical  nations. 

The  external  causes  which  brought  about  the  nip¬ 
ping  in  the  bud  of  the  German  revolution  are  well 
known.  Charles  the  Fifth,  who,  at  the  time  of  the 
awakening  of  a  national  consciousness  among  the 
historical  nations,  strove  to  realize  his  dream  of  a 


EPILOGUE 


229 


world  German-Roman  empire,  was  one  of  the  chief 
factors  in  causing  the  destruction  of  the  popular 
revolution.  This  monarch  missed  his  great  opportu¬ 
nity  to  raise  Germany,  by  means  of  supporting  social, 
political  and  religious  reform,  to  the  dignity  of  a 
useful  modern  State,  to  liberate  it  from  the  yoke  of 
Feudalism  and  save  it  from  disruption,  and  finally 
to  create  for  himself  a  nation  and  to  give  to  the 
people  a  real  king,  to  create  a  modern  monarchy 
which  would  support  all  the  oppressed  peoples  and 
terrify  the  conquering  mediaeval  lords  of  war.  But, 
through  his  wavering  conduct,  the  contrary  result 
occurred.  The  nobility  could  free  themselves  from 
the  subjection  to  the  Emperor,  on  the  one  hand,  by 
joining  with  the  new  religious  reform,  and  from  the 
influence  of  the  people,  on  the  other,  by  suppressing 
the  political  social  uprising;  and  consequently  they 
followed  this  course  of  action.  This  antinational 
activity  was  furthered,  not  only  by  the  contradictory 
policy  of  the  German  Emperor  and  the  ambition  of 
the  nobles,  but  also  by  the  political  inability  of  the 
leader  of  the  Reformation.  Luther,  with  his  doc¬ 
trinal  stupidity,  thought  it  more  advantageous  to 
join  the  nobility  rather  than  the  common  people  and 
finally  betrayed  the  peasants,  just  as,  even  to-day, 
the  German  doctrinaires  are  always  ready  to  betray 
the  people  whenever  they  attempt  to  take  the  demo¬ 
cratic  movement  seriously.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  all 
these  difficulties,  the  German  revolution  would  have 
triumphed,  had  it  not  been  for  the  fact  that  the 
cities,  the  seat  of  a  social  class,  which  had  immediate 


230 


EPILOGUE 


interest  in  the  downfall  of  Feudalism,  were  too  nar¬ 
row-minded  and  cowardly  at  heart  to  see  the  great 
importance  of  the  peasant  uprising  and  to  struggle 
for  their  own  liberation.  Having  been  delivered  into 
the  hands  of  their  enemies  by  their  natural  allies, 
denounced  in  shameful  orations  by  the  German  re¬ 
former,  forsaken  by  the  Emperor  and  butchered  by 
the  hereditary  war  lords,  the  German  peasants  were 
forced  to  abandon  the  revolution,  along  with  which 
was  also  nipped  in  the  bud  the  germ  of  Germany’s 
regeneration.  And  from  that  moment,  the  German 
nations  began  to  descend  lower  and  lower  in  the  scale 
of  progress.  Luther,  who  lacked  no  insight  into 
human  affairs,  saw  it  and  expressed  himself  sorrow¬ 
fully  about  it. 

The  punishment  for  this  great  crime  against  the 
people  on  the  part  of  the  nobles  and  citizens  came 
but  too  soon.  In  the  Thirty  Years’  War,  the  Ger¬ 
man  cities  had  to  submit  involuntarily  to  the  sentence 
which  they  themselves,  by  their  breaking  away  from 
the  German  revolution,  had  thus  pronounced.  They 
could  then  see  that  “the  history  of  the  world  is  the 
world’s  Court  of  Justice,”  but  they  could  not  avert 
the  fated  doom.  For  at  the  time  when  the  English 
revolution  raised  our  proud  neighbor  to  the  height 
of  culture  and  civilization  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
its  present  world  power,  Germany  was  bleeding  white 
through  its  civil  and  religious  wars,  and  this  process 
was  repeated  many  times.  Even  the  French  Revo¬ 
lution,  which  taught  all  European  nations  to  love 
and  esteem  liberty,  brought  to  Germany  only  the 


EPILOGUE 


231 


shame  of  foreign  rule  and  the  still  worse  domination 
of  the  reaction,  which  since  then  settled  so  securely 
upon  the  back  of  the  German  people,  that  not  even 
the  revolutions  of  1830  and  1848  could,  in  any  way, 
overthrow  it  from  its  seat.  And  just  as  at  the  time 
of  the  first  French  Revolution,  German  literature  and 
philosophy,  which  were  then  at  their  height,  could 
not  protect  the  ghost  of  a  German  empire  from  its 
fate,  so  are  all  our  orators,  writers  and  poets  of 
to-day  unable  to  revive  the  political  corpse  of  Ger¬ 
many,  the  soul  of  which  had  departed  long  ago  in 
the  unfortunate  peasant  war.  Great  popular  leaders 
and  patriotic  heroes  do  not  descend  from  the  skies, 
but  grow  out  of  the  deep  soil  of  the  people  and  its 
history.  When  the  latter  is  arrested  in  the  midst  of 
its  flight  toward  progress,  the  political  genius  of  the 
nation  must  necessarily  be  extinguished. 

And  this  is  just  what  happened  in  Germany.  At 
the  time  of  the  peasant  war,  Germany  possessed 
great  statesmen,  who  united  in  their  persons  patriot¬ 
ism  and  modernity  and  were  also  able  to  train  the 
people  and  implant  in  them  the  same  traits.  To-day 
these  people  lack  the  common  soil  and  traditions 
necessary  for  development  of  statesmen  of  such 
stamp.  All  reminiscences  of  German  greatness  go 
back  either  to  mediaeval  times  or  further  back  to  the 
primitive  forests.  The  present  German  patriotism 
is  reactionary  and  has  no  root  in  the  life  of  the 
people.  As  long  as  it  is  impossible  to  realize  the 
aim  of  a  modern  German  movement,  so  long  can 
there  exist  no  modern  German  people. 


232 


EPILOGUE 


Without  regeneration  there  can  be  no  people,  and’ 
without  a  people,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word, 
there  can  be  no  modern  patriotism.  Present-day 
German  patriotism,  which  expresses  itself  only  in 
verbal  protestations  against  our  neighbors,  while  it 
has  neither  the  courage  nor  the  talent  to  occupy 
itself  with  the  work  of  regeneration,  is  only  an  air 
bubble.  Germany  does  not  suffer  from  the  oppres¬ 
sion  of  a  foreign  yoke,  nor  is  there  any  fear  that  it 
will  suffer  in  the  future,  as  the  patriots  would  have 
us  believe,  but  it  is  ailing  as  a  result  of  its  murdered 
revolution ;  it  can  no  more  make  the  same  move 
toward  progress  without  the  help  of  the  other  pro¬ 
gressive  European  nations.  The  Germans  are  too 
proud  to  join  forces  with  those  nations  which  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  liberating  themselves  from  the  Christian 
mediaeval  spirit.  Hence  they  will  have  to  be  sub¬ 
jected  to  a  mediaeval  reaction,  which  they  did  not 
know  how  to  defeat  at  the  right  moment. 

The  last  opportunity,  which  offered  us  the  eleva¬ 
tion  of  the  German  people  to  the  degree  of  a  modern 
nation,  namely,  the  “War  of  Liberation,”1  ended 
only  in  a  victory  for  reaction;  for  the  war  against 
France  was  a  war  of  reactionary  Europe  against  the 
spirit  of  the  French  Revolution.  And  were  Ger¬ 
many  to  go  to  war  again  with  any  nation,  the  same 
result  would  be  repeated;  a  victory  of  the  army 

i  “The  War  of  Liberation,”  referred  to  by  Hess,  is  the  war 
of  the  year  1813-14,  which  Germany,  in  conjunction  with  her 
allies,  Russia  and  Great  Britain,  waged  against  Napoleon. — 
Translator. 


EPILOGUE 


233 


would  be  a  victory  of  reaction.  So  deeply  have  we 
sunk,  that  we  are  forced  to  hail  a  defeat  of  the  army 
as  a  happy  event  in  the  history  of  the  German  peo¬ 
ple.  Indeed,  “the  history  of  the  world  is  the  world’s 
Court  of  Justice.”  We  must  atone  now  for  the  sins 
we  committed  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

Who  can  foresee  the  catastrophes  that  may  befall 
us  as  a  result  of  our  arrested  development?  Cer¬ 
tainly,  we  hope  that  the  struggle  of  the  German  peo¬ 
ple  will  come  to  an  end  with  the  equalization  of  all 
oppressed  peoples  which  struggle  to  attain  the  same 
aim.  But  by  what  means  the  goal  will  be  reached,  no 
one  knows.  What  peaceful  or  warlike  German 
patriot  dares  to  think  about  it? 

The  age  of  race  dominance  is  at  an  end.  Even 
the  smallest  people,  whether  it  belongs  to  the  Ger¬ 
manic  or  Romance,  Slavic  or  Finnic,  Celtic  or  Semitic 
races,  as  soon  as  it  advances  its  claims  to  a  place 
among  the  historical  nations,  will  find  sympathetic 
supporters  in  the  powerful  civilized  Western  nations. 
Like  the  patriots  of  other  unfortunate  nations,  the 
German  patriots  can  attain  their  aim  only  by  means 
of  a  friendly  alliance  with  the  progressive  and  power¬ 
ful  nations  of  the  world.  But  if  they  continue  to 
conjure  themselves,  as  well  as  the  German  people, 
with  the  might  and  glory  of  the  “German  Sword,” 
they  will  only  add  to  the  old  unpardonable  mistakes, 
grave  new  ones ;  they  will  only  play  into  the  hands  of 
the  reaction,  and  drag  all  Germany  along  with  them. 


NOTES 


Note  I 

The  Talmud,  as  well  as  the  Midrash,  ascribe  the 
redemption  of  Israel  from  Egypt  to  the  chastity  of 
the  Jewish  women  and  their  faithfulness  to  the  Jew¬ 
ish  nationality.  It  is  especially  emphasized  that  the 
Jews  in  Egypt  retained  their  national  names  and 
language  and  did  not  adopt  the  names  and  language 
of  the  Egyptians  and  were  thus  more  worthy  of 
redemption  than  the  exiles  of  later  generations,  when 
this  form  of  assimilation  was  a  frequent  phenomenon. 
Witness  the  following  passages:1 

“Our  ancestors  did  not  change  their  names  in 
Egypt.  Those  who  went  down  to  Egypt  went  by  the 
names  of  Reuben  and  Simeon,  and  their  descendants, 
who  left  Egypt,  have  continued  to  bear  the  same 
names.  Judah  was  not  changed  to  Rufus,  nor  Reu¬ 
ben  to  Lulianus  nor  Joseph  to  Lustus  nor  Benjamin 
to  Alexander.” 

Even  our  greatest  prophet  and  lawgiver,  Moses,  is 
severely  blamed  for  his  posing  before  the  daughters 
of  Jethro  as  an  Egyptian,  and  not  as  a  Hebrew. 
And  because  of  that,  the  Midrash  asserts,  God  re¬ 
fused  his  plea  to  be  buried  in  the  Holy  Land;  while 
Joseph,  who  never  denied  his  descent,  was  rewarded 
by  being  carried  to  the  Holy  Land  and  buried  there. 

1  Midrash  Rabba,  Numbers,  Ch.  20,  also  Canticles,  Ch.  4, 
Leviticus,  Ch.  32. 


235 


236 


NOTES 


Said  Moses  to  God :  “Lord  of  the  world,  the  bones 
of  Joseph  were  interred  in  the  Holy  Land ;  why  dost 
thou  not  grant  me  the  same  privilege?”  Said  the 
Holy  One,  blessed  be  He:  “The  one  who  acknowl¬ 
edged  his  land  deserved  to  rest  there,  but  the  one 
who  denied  it  will  not  be  interred  in  her  sacred  soil. 
Whence  do  we  know  that  Joseph  acknowledged  his 
land?  We  know  it  from  the  following:  When  his 
mistress  complained  of  Joseph  to  her  husband  in  the 
words  ‘Behold  he  has  brought  here  a  Hebrew  to 
mock  at  us,’  Joseph  did  not  deny  that  he  was  a 
Hebrew  but  affirmed  it  and,  when  brought  before 
Pharaoh,  he  proudly  exclaimed:  ‘I  was  stolen  from 
the  land  of  the  Hebrews.’  He  was  therefore  buried 
in  his  own  land.  But  thou,  who  didst  deny  thy  land, 
wilt  not  be  buried  in  thy  land ;  for  when  the  daugh¬ 
ters  of  Jethro  said,  “An  Egyptian  saved  us  from 
the  hands  of  the  shepherds,”  thou  didst  hear  it  and 
wast  silent  and  therefore  thou  wilt  not  be  buried  in 
thy  land.2 


Note  II 

The  extra-mundane  point  of  support  which  the 
Jewish  historical  religion  has  in  common  with  the 
Natural  Religion  of  the  Hindus,  is  the  point  of  con¬ 
tact  between  the  Jewish  and  the  Pagan,  the  Semitic 
and  the  Indo-Germanic  world  views,  the  germ  out  of 
which  the  mediaeval  Christian  and  the  modern  scien¬ 
tific  views  of  life  have  grown.  Here,  in  this  punctwm 

2  Midrash  Rabba  Deuteronomy,  Ch.  2. 


NOTES 


237 


saliens ,  there  meet  the  two  great  mental  expressions 
of  the  two  great  historical  races.  Both  recognized 
and  expressed  clearly  in  their  oldest  literary  docu¬ 
ments,  that  the  ordinary  relations  of  life  become 
cumbersome  to  man  as  soon  as  his  spirit  awakens  in 
him,  and  that  holiness  then  becomes  a  necessary  con¬ 
dition  of  salvation.  Both  dreamed  of  a  golden  age 
in  the  distant  past,  of  a  Paradise  lost  which,  how¬ 
ever,  they  hope  that  man  will  once  more  regain.  But 
in  human  life  there  goes  on  a  continuous  struggle 
between  the  elementary  demands  and  the  human  ten¬ 
dencies  which  contain  the  germ  of  the  harmonious 
unity  of  life,  the  goal  of  the  history  of  humanity. 
To  help  the  human  spirit  in  its  struggle,  both  relig¬ 
ions  preach  restraint  from  the  pleasures  of  life, 
which  bring  only  death  and  misery  in  their  wake,  as 
a  means  to  attain  holiness  and  salvation.  But  there 
is  a  difference  in  their  preaching,  and  this  difference 
espresses  the  essential  separation  of  the  two  world 
views.  The  ascetic  tendency  of  the  Indo-Germanic 
race,  the  contemplative  character  of  which  has  never 
spurred  it  on  to  an  active  life,  finally  expressed  itself 
in  a  complete  renunciation  and  negation  of  life  (viz.: 
Brahmanism  and  Buddhism).  The  Jews,  on  the 
other  hand,  from  the  beginning  of  their  history  and 
throughout  the  storms  of  their  exile,  have  clung  fast 
to  their  mission,  namely,  to  bring  about  the  sanctifi¬ 
cation,  not  only  of  individual  life,  but  also  of  the 
social  life  of  Man,  to  further  its  development  and  to 
prepare  humanity  for  the  Messianic  time  which  will 
be  an  age  of  perfected  development  and  holiness. 


238 


NOTES 


The  spirit  of  Hindu  wisdom  found  its  best  and 
purest  expression  in  the  writings  of  a  pure-blooded 
German,  Schopenhauer,  whose  works  ought  to  form 
a  part  of  the  mental  equipment  of  every  educated 
man.  Schopenhauer  represents,  within  the  Christian- 
German  world,  the  most  decided  contrasting  tendency 
to  the  teachings  of  Hegel.  The  latter  allowed  the 
historical,  the  genetic  view  of  the  world,  the  Jewish 
view,  to  be  the  generating  point  of  the  spirit  and 
thus  raised  the  concrete  Jewish  historical  religion  to 
the  heights  of  an  abstract  spiritual  philosophy. 
Schopenhauer,  on  the  other  hand,  negates  historical 
religion  completely,  and  along  with  it,  historical  de¬ 
velopment,  nay,  even  life  itself  in  all  its  forms,  ideal 
as  well  as  real.  This  destructive  nihilism,  which  is  an 
original  trait  of  the  Indo-Germanic  race,  and  from 
the  beginning  found  its  clearest  expression  in  India, 
gradually  undermined  the  entire  structure  of  Natural 
Religion  and  finally  brought  about  its  complete  dis¬ 
solution.  Only  the  genetic  view  of  life,  that  of  Juda¬ 
ism,  which  incorporated  a  partial  negation  of  the 
natural  world,  without  at  the  same  time  minimizing 
the  value  of  the  creative  human  factor  in  history, 
was  able  to  enrich  the  world  with  a  more  confident 
and  self-reliant  conception  which  pieced  together  the 
fragments  of  a  tottering  world  and  united  them  once 
more  into  an  integral  world  by  means  of  the  hope 
for  a  future  regeneration. 

If  we  agree  with  Schopenhauer  that  the  creative 
being  is  only  an  elementary  natural  force  and  not 
the  creative  genius  of  all  historical  development  in 


NOTES 


239 


Nature  as  well  as  in  History,  we  must  also  accept 
the  world  as  a  product  of  self-contradictory  and 
self-destructive  forces,  the  striving  of  which,  ex¬ 
pressed  in  Schopenhauer’s  formula,  “The  will  to 
live”,  is  without  aim  and  purpose,  and  offers  no  sat¬ 
isfaction  to  the  moral  and  intellectual  man.  Only 
historical  religion,  which  sees  in  the  struggle  of  nat¬ 
ural  forces,  as  in  that  of  individuals  and  nations, 
only  stages  of  development,  and  which  carries  within 
itself  the  confidence  of  the  final  victory  of  the  Divine 
Power,  needs  not  negate  life  in  order  to  reach  its 
sanctification.  And  even  the  very  sanctity  of  life, 
which  Hinduism  preaches,  is,  in  its  content,  only  a 
contemplative  egoism  which  is  of  little  use  to  human¬ 
ity.  Every  striving  toward  a  better  state  of  exist¬ 
ence,  whether  it  be  an  ideal  or  a  real  one,  in  this 
world  or  in  the  next,  appears  to  this  contemplative 
egoism  as  pure  silliness.  Striving  is  conceived  by  it 
as  an  attempt  to  perpetuate  the  raw  elementary 
struggle,  the  helium  omnium  contra  omnes,  the  war 
of  all  against  all.  This  anti-genetic  view  manifests 
itself  in  all  social  movements  as  a  conservative  or  re¬ 
actionary  force.  Schopenhauer  himself,  as  is  known, 
turned  over  his  capital  to  a  Berlin  Society,  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  which  was  to  carry  on  a  campaign  against 
the  champions  of  the  people.  His  endorsement  of 
Christianity  applies  only  to  its  negative  phase,  in 
which  lies  its  essential  difference  from  Judaism, 
namely,  its  disparagement  of  the  present  life,  but 
does  not  include  its  positive  side,  the  exaltation  of 
regeneration,  by  means  of  which  Christianity  con- 


240 


NOTES 


verted  the  pagan  world  to  the  Jewish  religious  point 
of  view  and  thus  reconciled  it  with  life. 

We  do  not,  however,  want  to  deny  the  fact  that 
contrary  results  have  often  occurred.  The  holders 
of  the  contemplative  view,  who  have  sometimes  gone 
so  far  as  to  negate  the  very  will  to  live,  have  at  times 
been  able  to  create  great  artistic  works  and  also  to 
enjoy  them,  while  those  who  have  followed  the  “King¬ 
dom  of  Heaven”,  namely,  the  mission  to  organize 
social  life  on  the  divine  plan,  have  by  no  means  had 
their  way  strewn  with  roses. 

Note  III 

In  1858,  there  appeared,  at  Leipzig,  a  work  writ¬ 
ten  by  Otto  Wigand  under  the  title  Two  discourses 
concerning  the  desertion  from  Judaism ,  being  an 
analysis  of  the  views  on  this  question  expressed  in  the 
recently  published  correspondence  of  Dr.  Abraham 
Geiger.  The  author  endeavors  to  prove  that  the  con¬ 
clusions  of  Dr.  Geiger  are  untenable  both  from  a 
philosophic  and  from  a  social  standpoint.  Here  are 
his  social  arguments: 

“My  friend,”  says  the  author,  “there  are  certain 
conclusions  which  you  cannot  escape.  The  stamp  of 
slavery,  if  we  may  use  this  expression,  which  cen¬ 
turies  of  oppression  have  deeply  impressed  upon  the 
Jewish  features,  might  have  been  obliterated  by  the 
blessed  hand  of  regained  civil  liberty.  The  gait  of 
the  Jews,  buoyed  up  by  the  happy  reminiscences  of 
the  victory  won  in  the  struggle  for  the  noble  posses¬ 
sion  of  liberty,  might  have  been  straighter  and 


NOTES 


241 


prouder.  The  Jewish  face  may  certainly  beam  with 
pride,  as  it  views  the  tremendous  progress  made  by 
the  Jews  in  a  brief  time,  their  mighty  flight  to  the 
spiritual  height  upon  which  they  now  stand,  which 
is  especially  notable  considering  the  fact  that  their 
poets  and  writers  at  whose  greatness  the  nation  is 
astonished,  and  of  whose  talents  the  entire  people 
takes  account,  have  sprung  from  those  who,  a  gen¬ 
eration  ago,  could  hardly  converse  correctly  in  the 
language  of  the  land.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  should 
undoubtedly  call  forth  admiration  in  the  hearts  of 
the  present  German  generation,  and  yet,  in  spite  of 
these  achievements,  the  wall  separating  Jew  and 
Christian  still  stands  unshattered,  for  the  watchman 
that  guards  them  is  one  who  will  not  be  caught  nap- 
ping.  It  is  the  race  difference  between  the  Jewish 
and  Christian  populations.  If  this  assertion  of  mine 
surprises  or  astonishes  you,  I  ask  you  to  consider 
whether  it  is  not  almost  a  rule  with  the  Germans  that 
race  differences  generate  prejudices  which  cannot  be 
overcome  by  any  manifestation  of  good-will  on  the 
part  of  the  other  race.  The  relations  existing  be¬ 
tween  the  German  and  the  Slavic  populations  in 
Bohemia,  in  Hungary  and  Transylvania,  between 
the  Germans  and  the  Danes  in  Schleswig,  or  between 
the  Irish  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  settlers  in  Ireland, 
illustrates  well  the  power  of  race  antagonism  in  the 
German  world.  In  all  these  countries  the  different 
elements  of  the  population  have  lived  side  by  side 
for  centuries,  sharing  equally  all  political  rights,  and 
yet,  so  strong  are  the  national  or  racial  differences, 


242 


NOTES 


that  a  social  amalgamation  of  the  various  elements 
of  the  population  is  even  at  the  present  day  quite 
unthinkable.  And  what  comparison  is  there  between 
the  race  differences  of  a  German  and  Slav,  a  Celt  and 
Anglo-Saxon,  or  a  German  and  Dane,  and  the  race 
antagonism  between  the  children  of  the  sons  of  Jacob, 
who  are  of  Asiatic  descent,  and  the  descendants  of 
Teut  and  Herman,  the  ancestors  of  whom  have  inhab¬ 
ited  Europe  from  time  immemorial ;  between  the 
proud  and  the  tall  blond  German  and  the  small  of 
figure,  black-haired  and  black-eyed  Jew?  Races 
which  differ  in  such  a  degree  oppose  each  other  in¬ 
stinctively  and  against  such  opposition  reason  and 
good  sense  are  powerless.” 

These  expressions  are  certainly  frank  and  sincere 
in  their  meaning,  though  they  by  no  means  prove  the 
conclusions  to  which  the  author  wishes  to  arrive, 
namely,  the  desirability  of  conversion;  for  conver¬ 
sion  will  not  turn  a  Jew  into  a  German.  But  they 
at  least  contain  the  confession,  that  an  instinctive 
race  antagonism  triumphs  in  Germany  above  all  hu¬ 
manitarian  sentiments.  The  “pure  human  nature” 
resolves  itself,  according  to  the  Germans,  in  the 
nature  of  pure  Germanism.  The  “high-born  blond 
race”  looks  with  contempt  upon  the  regeneration  of 
the  “black-haired,  quick-moving  mannikins,”  without 
regard  to  whether  they  are  descendants  of  the  Bib¬ 
lical  patriarchs,  or  of  the  ancient  Romans  and  Gauls. 

While  other  civilized  western  nations  mention  the 
shameful  oppression  to  which  the  Jews  were  formerly 
subjected,  only  as  an  act  of  theirs  of  which  they  are 


NOTES 


243 


ashamed,  the  German  remembers  only  the  “stamp  of 
slavery”  which  he  impressed  upon  “the  Jewish  phy¬ 
siognomy.” 

In  a  feuilleton  which  appeared  recently  in  the 
B owner zeitwng,  entitled  “Bonn  Eighty  Years  Ago,” 
the  author  speaks  of  the  Jews  in  mocking  terms  and 
describes  them  as  people  who  lived  in  separate  quar¬ 
ters  and  supported  themselves  by  petty  trades.  I 
believe  that  we  should  wonder  less  at  the  fact  that 
the  Jews,  who  were  forbidden  to  participate  in  the 
important  branches  of  industry  and  commerce,  lived 
on  petty  trade,  than  at  the  fact  that  they  were  able 
to  live  at  all  in  those  centuries  of  oppression.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  almost  every  means  of  existence,  in¬ 
cluding  the  right  of  domicile,  was  denied  them.  It 
was  only  by  means  of  bribes  that  every  Jewish  gen¬ 
eration  could  procure  anew  the  “privilege”  not  to  be 
driven  out  of  their  homes  in  Bonn,  and  they  felt 
happy  indeed  if,  in  spite  of  the  contract,  they  were 
not  robbed  of  their  property  and  exiled,  or  attacked 
by  a  fanatical  mob  in  the  bargain.  I,  also,  can  tell 
a  story  of  “eighty  years  ago.”  A  Jew  won  the  high 
favor  of  the  Kurfuerst  of  Bonn,  that  he  and  his 
descendants  were  granted  the  “privilege”  to  settle 
in  Ebendich.1 


Note  IV 

Gabriel  Riesser,  the  editor  of  the  magazine,  The 
Jew ,  as  far  as  I  can  recollect,  never  fell  into  the 
error,  common  to  all  modern  German  Jews,  that  the 
i  Ebendich  is  a  village  near  Bonn. 


244 


NOTES 


emancipation  of  the  Jews  is  irreconcilable  with  the 
development  of  Jewish  Nationalism.  He  demanded 
emancipation  for  the  Jews  on  the  one  condition  only, 
that  of  their  receiving  all  civil  and  political  rights 
in  return  for  their  assuming  all  civil  and  political 
burdens. 

Suppose  we  assume  that  the  Jews  had  not  only 
a  national  religion,  but  a  real  nationality,  a  land  and 
a  State,  and  that,  as  happens  with  all  other  nations, 
a  number  of  this  sovereign  State  were  to  settle  in 
foreign  countries,  such  as  England,  France  or  other 
countries,  and  to  live  there  for  centuries,  would  those 
countries  deny  them  the  right  of  naturalization  if 
they,  in  return  for  civil  and  political  rights  under¬ 
took  to  discharge  all  duties  and  bear  all  the  burdens 
of  the  State?  Is  it  not  sufficient  for  a  person  to  be 
born  in  a  country,  or  even  to  prove  that  he  has  lived 
in  a  country  for  a  number  of  years,  to  be  entitled 
to  citizenship  after  the  expiration  of  a  certain  time? 
In  countries  which  stand  at  present  at  the  height 
of  civilization,  this  is  an  accepted  fact,  but  not  in 
Germany.  Here,  the  Jew,  who  has  lived  in  the  land 
for  centuries,  must  first  deny  his  race,  his  descent, 
his  traditional  memories,  his  type  and  temperament, 
nay,  even  his  very  character,  in  order  to  prove  him¬ 
self  worthy  to  live  among  a  people  which  will  not 
contribute  anything  to  modern  civil  and  political  life, 
unless  it  overcomes  its  inherited  race  prejudices.  The 
Jews,  on  the  other  hand,  have  never  been  dominated 
by  prejudice  nor  actuated  by  the  desire  of  race 
mastery.  The  fundamental  law  of  the  Mosaic  polity 


NOTES 


245 


enunciates  explicitly  the  equality  of  all  inhabitants 
of  the  land  of  Israel,  without  regard  as  to  whether 
they  are  Jews  or  foreigners. 

Note  V 

At  the  time  of  Mendelssohn’s  activity  in  Germany, 
there  lived  in  Poland  a  man  by  the  name  of  Israel 
Bal  Shem.  He,  like  Mendelssohn,  had  dreamed  very 
little  that  he  would  some  day  become  the  founder  of 
a  sect.  And  yet,  just  as  in  spite  of  his  personal 
wishes,  Mendelssohn  was  proclaimed  the  originator 
of  the  Reform  movement,  so  it  was  through  Israel 
Bal  Shem  that  the  Chasidic  sect  of  the  Slavic  coun¬ 
tries  was  called  into  life.  The  word  chasid,  in  its 
literal  meaning,  is  the  appellation  given  to  every 
pious  Jew  and  connotes,  unlike  the  word  “pietist” 
in  Protestant  Christianity,  no  secondary  meaning. 
There  have  been  Chasidim  among  the  Jews  at  all 
times,  just  as  there  were  long  before  the  so-called 
Bal  Shem,  Jews  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  mys¬ 
tic  teachings  of  the  Kabbala  and  who  were  said  to 
perform  miracles  by  means  of  practical  Kabbala. 
But  there  were  also,  on  the  other  hand,  in  former 
generations,  Jews  who  participated  in  the  culture  of 
the  land  where  they  dwelt,  in  the  same  measure  as 
the  Jews  of  Germany  since  Mendelssohn  have  par¬ 
ticipated  in  German  culture,  and  yet  they,  unlike 
the  latter,  did  not  call  themselves  reformers.  There¬ 
fore,  if  Rationalism  among  the  German  Jews,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  Chasidism  among  the  Slavonian  Jews 
on  the  other,  did  call  forth  a  grave  schism  among 


246 


NOTES 


the  Jews  of  those  countries,  the  causes  for  it  lie  not 
in  the  nature  of  the  tendencies  themselves  but  in  the 
peculiar  condition  of  the  ages  of  their  birth.  Espe¬ 
cially  is  this  true  of  Slavonic  lands,  where  the  spirit 
of  the  times  had  not  penetrated  the  consciousness  of 
the  masses. 

The  Chasidim,  like  the  Jewish  Essenes  in  the  last 
period  of  antiquity,  and  like  the  Christian  pietists 
at  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  represent  a  tendency 
which  emphasizes  more  the  inner  essence  of  religion 
than  the  mere  external  performance  of  its  precepts. 
The  Chasidim  do  not  observe  pedantically  all  the 
minutiae  of  Jewish  law,  though  they  do  not  deny  nor 
question  in  the  least,  the  authority  of  both  the  writ¬ 
ten  and  the  oral  law;  but  they  believe  that  both  the 
written  and  the  oral  law  are  an  expression  of  the 
spirit,  and  that  in  this  consists  their  real  value.  Not 
the  form,  but  the  spirit  which  created  it,  is  for  them 
the  holy  and  the  sacred.  And  yet  they  are  not  less 
ascetical  than  other  pious  Jews  but  observe  strictly 
all  the  laws  of  morality  and  purity.  Their  answer 
to  the  rabbis  who  accuse  them  of  transgressing  cer¬ 
tain  laws  and  precepts  is  “We  are  not  subjected  to 
the  Midath  hadin ,  i.e.,  God’s  strict  measure  of  judg¬ 
ment,  but  to  the  Midath  harachamim,  i.e.,  His  meas¬ 
ure  of  grace  and  mercy.  The  philosophical  aspect 
of  Chasidism,  from  the  point  of  view  of  theoretical 
Kabbala,  is  developed  by  Rabbi  Samuel  of  Wilna  in 
his  book,  the  Tanya.  The  disciples  of  this  philoso¬ 
pher  call  themselves  Chabad  (a  word  that  is  formed 
from  the  initials  of  three  Hebrew  words,  Chokmah — 


NOTES 


247 


wisdom,  Bina — reason,  and  Daath — knowledge.  This 
sect  is  widely  scattered  among  the  Jews  and  is  even 
represented  in  Jerusalem. 

As  regards  the  form  which  Chasidism  assumed 
among  the  Jewish  masses  of  Poland  and  other  Sla¬ 
vonic  countries,  as  well  as  in  Hungary,  it  is  undoubt¬ 
edly  not  free  from  gross  superstitions ;  yet  the  crit¬ 
ics,  who  rightly  combat  this  degenerating  tendency 
of  Chasidism  do  not,  after  all,  seem  to  conceive  the 
proper  essence  nor  the  historical  importance  of 
Chasidism.  The  rabbis,  as  well  as  the  Rationalists, 
have  attempted  to  declare  Chasidism  a  heresy ;  but 
their  arrows  of  excommunication  had  as  little  effect 
as  the  criticism  of  the  Rationalists,  against  a  spir¬ 
itual  tendency  which  was,  like  Reform,  the  product 
of  the  age,  and,  though  of  an  unconscious  nature, 
and  perhaps  because  of  that,  of  great  importance. 
The  Reform  movement  in  Germany  rose  only  after 
modern  life  had  completely  undermined  mediaeval 
Judaism  and  closed  up  its  life  source.  It  could, 
therefore,  only  utilize  the  remnants  of  a  Judaism 
torn  away  from  its  main  trunk,  as  timber  or  orna¬ 
ments  for  its  essentially  non- Jewish  temple.  Chasid¬ 
ism,  on  the  other  hand,  built  its  house  and  developed 
within  the  folds  of  the  living  spirit  of  a  Judaism 
which  was  influenced,  more  instinctively  than  con¬ 
sciously,  by  the  spirit  of  modern  times,  and  thus 
formed  a  transition  from  mediaeval  Judaism  to  a 
regenerated  Judaism,  which  is  still  to  be  conceived  as 
being  in  the  process  of  development.  The  great  good 
which  will  result  from  a  combination  of  Chasidism 


248 


NOTES 


with  the  national  movement  is  almost  incalculable. 
Chasidism  makes  great  gains  in  the  great  Jewish 
centers  of  the  East.  Even  the  rabbis,  who  heretofore 
have  declared  Chasidism  a  heresy,  are  beginning  to 
understand  that  there  are  only  two  alternatives  for 
the  great  Jewish  masses  of  Eastern  Europe;  either 
to  be  absorbed  along  with  the  reformers,  by  the 
gradually  penetrating  external  culture,  or  to  avert 
this  catastrophe  by  an  inner  regeneration  of  which 
Chasidism  is  certainly  a  forerunner. 

Although  the  Chasidim  are  without  social  organi¬ 
zation,  they  live  in  socialistic  fashion.  The  house 
of  the  rich  man  is  always  open  to  the  poor  and  the 
latter  is  as  much  at  home  there  as  he  is  in  his  own 
house.  They  seem  to  have  taken  as  their  motto  the 
saying  in  Aboth :  “He  who  says  what  is  mine  is  thine 
and  what  is  thine  is  thine  is  a  saint”1  (Aboth,  v:13). 
A  sect  which  practises  such  self-abnegation  and 
whose  members  are  capable  of  great  religious  enthu¬ 
siasm  must  have  for  its  foundation  something  more 
than  mere  crudeness  and  ignorance.2 

1  According  to  the  Mishnah  in  Aboth,  there  are  four  points 
of  view  as  regards  “Mine”  and  “Thine.”  The  first  has  already 
been  discussed  by  us  in  the  third  letter.  It  is  the  ordinary 
bourgeois  rule  of  conduct,  namely,  “Everyone  for  himself.” 
The  second  is  that  of  the  boor — the  Am  Haaretz,  who  would 
share  the  riches  of  the  wealthy  and  give  him  in  exchange  his 
own  meager  share,  changing  places  with  him,  so  to  speak. 
The  third  is  the  view  of  the  Chasid  who  says,  “mine  is  thine,” 
without  desiring  anything  in  return.  The  fourth  is  the  attitude 
of  the  wicked  who  desires  the  property  of  others  without 
giving  anything  in  return. 

2  Hess’s  estimate  of  the  Chasidim  and  Chasidism  is  exagger¬ 
ated.  Chasidism  does  not  represent  a  great  spiritual  revolu- 


NOTES 


249 


Note  VI 

The  Greeks  had  sanctified  and  worshiped  Nature 
in  their  religious  cult  only  in  its  finished  and  har¬ 
monious  form,  but  not  in  its  creative  and  becoming 
aspect.  Man,  also,  had  been  deified  in  the  Grecian 
world  only  as  a  complete  organization,  as  a  being 
who  stands  at  the  height  of  organic  life,  but  not  as 
the  representative  of  a  new  life  sphere;  not  as  a 
moral  and  social  being,  who  is  to  be  looked  upon  as 
in  the  midst  of  becoming  and  developing,  as  is  the 
case  with  Christianity,  the  descendant  of  the  his¬ 
torical  religion  of  Judaism.  The  Jews,  on  the  other 

tion  in  the  history  of  Judaism,  as  some  assert,  nor  was  it  a  fore¬ 
runner  of  the  great  inner  regeneration,  as  Hess  would  have  us 
believe.  Its  latest  development  certainly  does  not  entitle  it  to 
that  exalted  position.  Only  one  or  two  of  its  leaders  have  risen 
to  a  philosophic  conception  of  Judaism.  Equally  exaggerated  is 
the  attribution  to  the  Chasidim  of  an  anti-legal  tendency  and 
the  supplying  of  it  with  philosophic  reasons.  On  the  con¬ 
trary,  the  great  majority  of  the  Chasidim  are  more  careful 
observers  of  all  the  minutiae  of  the  law  than  their  opponents. 
It  is  true  that  law-breakers  were  found  among  the  leaders  of 
the  Chasidim,  especially  in  the  early  days  of  the  sect,  but  their 
reason  for  law-breaking  was  of  more  material  nature  than  the 
philosophic  distinction  between  kernel  and  husk,  though  they 
certainly  endeavored  to  reduce  their  transgressions  to  a  re¬ 
ligious  system.  But  to  take  them  seriously  and  to  charge 
their  actions  to  the  account  of  Chasidism,  is  pure  exaggeration. 
Hess,  however,  knew  very  little  about  the  Chasidim  and  derived 
his  information  from  books,  and  was  thus  often  grossly  mis¬ 
informed.  He  attributes  the  founding  of  the  Chabad  to  one, 
Samuel  of  Wilna,  a  totally  unknown  personality,  when  it  is 
well  known  that  the  founder  was  Shneor  Zalman  of  Ladie  who 
was  also  the  author  of  the  Tanya.  Wilna,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  the  fortress  of  opposition  to  Chasidism.— Translator. 


250 


NOTES 


hand,  had  turned  the  tables,  deifying  the  becoming; 
worshiping  the  God  whose  very  name  expresses  past, 
present  and  future.  Even  the  cosmic  and  organic 
life  spheres,  which  are  already  completed  in  this  uni¬ 
versal  epoch,  are  not  considered  by  the  Bible  as 
eternal  and  unchangeable,  but  viewed  from  the  cre¬ 
ative  standpoint.  The  Bible  begins  with  the  creation 
of  the  world  and  the  declaration  of  the  natural  Sab¬ 
bath,  but  the  prophets  have  gone  further  and  com¬ 
pleted  the  process,  embracing  as  they-  did  the  entire 
history  of  human  development  and  foreseeing  the 
final  historical  Sabbath.  The  tendency  to  view  God 
in  history,  not  only  in  the  history  of  humanity,  but 
also  in  the  history  of  the  cosmic  and  organic  world, 
is  an  essential  expression  of  the  Jewish  spirit.  This 
striving  after  the  recognition  of  God  is  developed 
in  historical  studies,  through  observation  of  histori¬ 
cal  facts;  but  in  nature-study,  it  posits  a  certain 
mental  direction  as  a  starting-point,  one  that  is  to¬ 
tally  unknown  to  modern  scientists.  Goethe  and 
Humboldt  were  utterly  opposed  to  the  tendency  of 
spiritualizing  Nature,  which  is  so  closely  united  with 
the  Jewish  God-idea. 

The  Greeks  sanctified  the  totality  of  Nature,  in¬ 
cluding  man  as  a  complete  product;  the  Jews  sanc¬ 
tified  the  totality  of  history,  including  that  of  the 
organic  and  cosmic  life;  and  the  Christian  deified 
and  sanctified  the  individual.  Individuality  had  thus 
found  its  complete  expression  through  Christian 
apotheosis.  Such  a  view  does  man  both  justice  and 
injustice;  for  in  order  to  delineate  the  rights  of  the 


NOTES 


251 


individual,  man  must  be  conceived  abstractly  and 
not  as  he  really  exists,  united  with  Nature  and  his¬ 
tory,  family  and  country.  The  fall  of  the  ancient 
world  and  the  entry  of  the  Germanic  race  upon  the 
arena  of  history  have  brought  about  both  the 
strengthening  of  individuality  and  its  one-sidedness, 
which  to-day  is  undermining  individuality,  but  true 
personality  will  rise  again  when  individualism  will  be 
united  with  other  higher  tendencies.  The  realization 
of  this  higher  unity  can  be  made  possible  only  by 
viewing  the  Jewish  historical  religion  in  a  scientific 
manner.  The  religion  which  will  be  raised  to  a  sci¬ 
ence  is  none  other  than  the  Bible  religion,  which 
preaches  the  genesis  and  the  unity  of  cosmic,  or¬ 
ganic  and  social  life,  and  to  the  development  and 
spread  of  which,  the  genius  of  the  Jews  after  their 
regeneration  as  an  independent  nation,  will  be  de¬ 
voted. 


Note  VII 

At  the  boundary  line  of  time,  which  led  from  the 
natural,  organic  life  of  the  prehistoric  races  to  the 
social  life  of  the  historical  nations,  the  first,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  story  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  were  doomed 
to  destruction  with  the  rather  unintelligible  words, 
“My  spirit  will  not  dwell  forever  in  man  because  he 
is  flesh.”  Everything  which  is  generated  must  event¬ 
ually  disappear.  Nothing  in  existence  persists  eter¬ 
nally,  neither  an  atom  nor  an  entire  planet,  neither 
the  germ  out  of  which  whole  generations  had  devel¬ 
oped,  nor  the  highest  being  of  the  earth,  man,  “be- 


252 


NOTES 


cause  he  is  flesh”  and  must  therefore  follow  the  way 
of  all  flesh,  namely,  death  and  dissolution. 

All  nations  of  antiquity  had  their  legends  about 
the  final  catastrophe  of  all  organic  life.  But  it  was 
left  to  our  Jewish  genetic  view,  which  had  penetrated 
deeply  into  the  very  essence  of  the  created  world,  to 
conceive  “being”  as  “becoming,”  a  conception  which 
reconciles  the  antithesis  of  life  and  death,  and  sees 
reality  as  an  everlasting  succession  of  birth  and 
rebirth. 

The  anti-genetic,  pagan  view  of  the  world,  which 
taught  the  eternity  of  being,  has  avoided,  whenever 
possible,  the  question  of  becoming.  But  modern  sci¬ 
ence  has  forced  this  old  view  to  withdraw  from  its 
position.  The  phenomenon  of  the  rise  and  decay  of 
individual  entities — and  all  temporal-spatial  exist¬ 
ence  is  individual,  namely,  limited — looms  so  largely 
in  the  whole  organic  life-sphere,  that  the  pagan  view 
of  the  eternity  of  being  long  ago  recognized  its  dan¬ 
gerous  position  and  sought  refuge  in  the  theory  of 
the  pre-existence  of  the  germs  or  atoms. 

[Note — What  follows  is  too  abstruse  to  reproduce 
in  its  entirety.  We  will  therefore  only  give  the  gist 
of  Hess’s  arguments,  omitting  the  scientific  proofs.] 

Hess  attempts  to  disprove  first  the  theory  of  the 
preexistence  of  the  germ,  by  asserting  that  the  germ 
itself  is  being  regenerated  through  the  process  of 
metabolism  and  so  is  the  body  constantly  rebuilt 
after  its  full  development  and  full  growth  by  the 
process  of  continual  cell  formation.  The  germ, 
therefore,  is  not  a  fixed  preexistent  thing,  but  only 


NOTES 


253 


a  stage  in  the  flowing  process  of  life.  This  process 
runs  in  a  cycle,  embracing  also  the  phenomenon 
which  is  apparently  the  opposite  of  life,  namely, 
death.  But  in  reality,  death  is  only  a  step  in  the 
great  process  of  life ;  for  every  new  formation  of  life 
is  preceded  by  the  dissolution  of  its  preceding  form. 

Moreover,  not  only  are  germs  fixed  and  themselves 
generated  from  organic  matter,  but  they  are  even 
sometimes  formed  from  inorganic  matter.  And  this 
was  certainly  the  case  at  the  beginning  of  the  devel¬ 
opment  of  the  life-sphere.  Cases  of  spontaneous  gen¬ 
eration,  i.e.,  cases  where  life  springs  up  anew  without 
a  preceding  life,  occur  often.  He  quotes  a  number 
of  experiments  and  testimonies  of  travelers  to  cor¬ 
roborate  his  view.  Hess,  as  a  philosophic  creationist, 
who  sees  in  life  as  well  as  in  other  spheres  of  the 
universe  new  combinations,  cannot  adopt  the  Dar¬ 
winian  view  which  applies  rather  a  mechanical  expla¬ 
nation  to  the  origin  of  species.  He  combats  this 
view  and  believes  that  the  species  are  constant  and 
do  not  pass  into  one  another  by  mutation,  but  new 
species  arise  in  a  spontaneous  manner  through  the 
mediation  of  existing  species. 

The  third  point  which  Hess  endeavors  to  establish 
is  the  perishability  of  atoms.  He  attempts  to  dis¬ 
prove  the  doctrine  of  the  eternity  of  atoms  and  main¬ 
tains  that  cosmic  matter,  in  the  form  of  cosmic  atoms, 
came  into  being  out  of  rarified  space  by  a  creative 
act.  For  proofs  of  his  cosmic  theory  he  refers  to 
his  articles  on  the  subject  in  the  scientific  magazines, 
Century  and  Natur.  Thus  Hess  endeavors  to  estab- 


254 


NOTES 


lish  his  genetic  philosophy  by  a  peculiar  scientific 
system.  He  lays  special  emphasis  on  the  law  of  con¬ 
servation  of  energy  and  sees  in  it  a  corroboration  of 
the  Jewish  idea  of  the  oneness  and  uniqueness  of  the 
creative  being.  He  applies  this  law  to  the  social 
world.  An  exact  Social  Science  does  not  as  yet 
exist.  Science  has  hitherto  had  for  its  object  only 
Nature,  namely,  the  cosmic  and  organic  life-spheres. 
The  reason  for  it  is  that  the  possible  object  of  a 
Social  Science,  namely,  the  social  world,  is  still  in  the 
process  of  becoming,  but  science  deals  with  objective 
and  concrete  things.  And  this  is  the  reason  that  sci¬ 
ence  has  little  to  do  with  religion ;  for  religion,  as 
well  as  morality,  is  a  product  of  social  life.  The 
adoption  of  the  Jewish  idea  of  the  unity  of  life  by 
science  will  be  accomplished  in  the  following  manner: 
Science  will,  on  the  one  hand,  abandon  the  pagan  con¬ 
ception  of  the  eternity  of  matter  or  atoms,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  will  purge  the  idea  of  unity  from  its 
anthropomorphic  elements  with  which  the  racial 
genius  had  endowed  it,  and  which  prevented  it  from 
deeply  influencing  the  social,  human  life.  It  is  only 
after  the  complete  development  of  the  human  and 
social  life  that  science  will  perform  its  proper  func¬ 
tion  and  vindicate  its  utility. 

Note  VIII 

Luzzato  expresses  himself  quite  frankly  concern¬ 
ing  the  sacrificial  eult ;  he  assigns  to  it  a  pre-Mosaic 
origin.  The  word  Kadosh — holy,  which  is  undoubt- 


NOTES 


255 


edly  older  than  the  Mosaic  law,  is  derived,  according 
to  him,  from  the  words  Yelcod  esh — burned  by  fire, 
referring  to  the  ancient  usage  of  burning  all  sacri¬ 
fices.  Luzzato  speaks  with  authority.  According  to 
him,  the  sacrificial  cult  described  in  the  Bible  was  a 
concession  made  by  Moses  to  the  popular  beliefs  of 
the  children  of  Israel,  in  order  to  forestall  a  rever¬ 
sion  to  paganism.  It  had  also  another  purpose, 
namely,  to  strengthen  the  unity  of  the  people,  by 
compelling  them  to  bring  their  sacrifices  to  one  place, 
the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  It  had  likewise  a  charit¬ 
able  aim  in  view  when  it  prescribed  that  every  volun¬ 
tary  offering  must  be  immediately  consumed,  for  thus 
it  often  happened  that  the  poor  were  invited  to  the 
sacrificial  feast.  Just  as  with  the  paschal  lamb,  so 
it  was  with  many  free-will  offerings ;  almost  every 
head  of  a  family  brought  an  offering  at  least  once 
a  year ;  and  thus  the  sacrificial  cult  really  formed 
the  basis  of  Jewish  solidarity  which  is  so  practically 
expressed  in  the  saying:  “All  Jews  are  responsible 
for  one  another.” 

Maimonides  goes  still  further,  and  sees  in  the  limi¬ 
tation  of  the  sacrificial  cult  to  one  place  a  tendency 
to  restrain  its  practise.  He,  like  other  thinkers,  con¬ 
siders  the  sacrificial  cult  a  concession  to  pagan  forms 
of  worship,  but  he  emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  Moses  was  to  displace,  by  means  of  the  sac¬ 
rificial  ceremonies,  the  practise  of  human  sacrifices, 
which  was  widespread  among  the  nations  of  the  East. 
A  similar  explanation  is  offered  by  Abarbanel  in  his 
commentary  to  Exodus,  namely,  that  the  sacrifice  of 


256 


NOTES 


the  paschal  lamb  was  instituted  to  divert  the  people 
from  the  worship  of  the  Egyptian  god  Ammon,  who 
was  represented  as  having  a  lamb’s  head. 

It  is  certain  that  the  practise  of  human  sacrifices, 
which  was  common  to  all  nations  of  antiquity,  was 
displaced  only  after  great  effort,  by  the  gradual 
spread  of  the  institution  of  animal  sacrifices.  The 
history  of  antiquity,  Biblical  as  well  as  pagan,  proves 
this  assertion.  The  story  of  the  trial  of  Abraham, 
where  the  angel,  immediately  after  refusing  to  accept 
the  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  substitutes  the  animal  in  his 
place,  reflects  this  tendency.  A  similar  meaning  is 
to  be  seen  in  the  story  of  Euripides,  where  Artemis 
had  taken  Iphigenia  from  the  sacrificial  stall,  a  deer 
was  found  in  her  place.  But  custom  dies  hard,  and 
long  after  it  ceases  to  exist,  traces  of  it  still  survive. 
Such  traces  of  human  sacrifice  we  find  both  in  the 
Old  Testament1  and  in  Grecian  legend.  Iphigenia 
herself,  after  she  escapes  from  Aulis,  reappears  on 
Mount  Tauris  as  a  Priestess  of  Artemis  and  is  by  her 
commanded  to  sacrifice  every  Greek  appearing  on 
the  mountain.  More  widely  spread  and  more  deeply 
rooted  in  the  life  of  the  people  than  among  the  pre- 
biblical  kinsmen  of  the  Jews  and  the  Greeks,  were 
human  sacrifices  among  the  other  nations  of  anti¬ 
quity.  In  India,  in  Egypt,  in  ancient  Germany,  as 
well  as  among  the  Semitic  nations,  human  sacrifices 
had  been  widely  practised.  The  Franks,  who  accom¬ 
panied  King  Theudobert  on  his  march  into  Italy,  sac- 

1  Cf.  II  Kings  iii,  27,  the  story  of  the  sacrifice  by  Mesha,  the 
Moabite  King,  of  his  eldest  son. — Translator. 


NOTES 


257 


rificed  the  women  and  children  of  captive  Goths, 
throwing  the  first-fruits  of  their  victory  into  the 
Po.2  The  view  that  a  human  sacrifice  was  required 
in  order  to  propitiate  the  wrath  of  God,  persisted 
even  in  the  Christian  world,  which  looks  upon  the 
Crucifixion  of  Jesus  as  a  sacrifice  of  atonement. 
Echoes  of  this  conception,  though  not  as  gross,  we 
find  also  in  the  Zohar,  where  it  is  said:  “The  inno¬ 
cent  sometimes  serves  as  an  offering  to  atone  for  the 
sins  of  others,  and  therefore  do  the  pious  suffer  to 
atone  for  the  sins  of  the  world.”3  The  slaughter  of 
a  rooster  for  each  male  member  of  the  family  and  of 
a  hen  for  each  female  member,  on  the  eve  of  the  Day 
of  Atonement,  is  a  survival  of  the  former  substitu¬ 
tion  of  animal  sacrifices  in  the  place  of  man,  as  the 
accompanying  prayer  indicates:  “May  this  animal 
be  my  atonement  and  substitute.  May  it  go  to  death 
and  I  to  a  long  and  peaceful  life.”  Just  as  animal 
sacrifices  had  formerly  taken  the  place  of  human  sac¬ 
rifices,  so  have  the  former  in  turn  been  displaced  by 
prayers.  The  prophets  and  other  sacred  writers  of 
Israel  urged  the  substitution  persistently.4  A  re¬ 
lapse  in  case  of  Jewish  restoration  of  the  Jewish  cult 
into  its  former  usage  of  sacrifices  is  therefore  no 
more  possible  than  a  similar  relapse  from  animal  to 
human  sacrifices  was  possible  in  former  times.  But 
a  stationary  stage  in  the  Jewish  cult  in  the  future  is 

2  Procob.  Bell.  Goth.  lib.  II,  Chap.  25. 

3  Zohar,  Part  I,  p.  60,  section  "Noah. 

4  See,  among  other  passages,  Hosea  vi,  6;  xiv,  4;  Micah 
vi,  6-8;  Isaiah  1,  11;  lxvi,  1. 


258 


NOTES 


likewise  unthinkable.  The  Jewish  religion  will  be 
regenerated  along  with  the  people. 

Note  IX 

Colonization  movements,  as  we  well  know,  do  not 
arise  merely  from  mere  enthusiasm  for  a  certain  idea, 
but  arise  primarily,  through  the  definite  demands  of 
life.  They  originate  mostly  in  small  countries, 
where  the  struggle  for  existence  is  very  hard  and  are 
directed  toward  such  places  where  opportunities  for 
making  a  living  are  abundant.  Colonization,  being 
a  kind  of  mass-migration  under  the  protection  of  the 
law,  endeavors  to  seek  for  labor  a  better  soil  and 
more  extensive  rights.  If  the  Jews,  with  the  help  of 
France,  should  originate  a  mass-migration  of  their 
oppressed  brethren  into  the  Orient,  it  will  take  place 
only  because  the  Jewish  colonists  will  find  a  better 
field  for  gaining  a  livelihood,  and  Jewish  labor  re¬ 
ceive  at  least  as  much  legal  protection  as  it  enjoys 
in  the  Occident.  It  is  to  be  asked,  therefore,  whether 
these  fundamental  conditions  necessary  for  a  Jewish 
settlement  in  the  Orient  already  exist  there.  At 
present,  this  is  not  the  case.  Nor  can  we  speak  as 
yet  of  a  Jewish  mass-migration  to  the  Holy  Land. 
But  a  great  vista  of  possibilities  will  be  opened  in 
the  Orient  in  the  near  future,  by  means  of  the  civili¬ 
zation  which  once  proceeded  from  there.  As  a  result 
of  the  rapidly-spreading  lines  of  communication,  geo¬ 
graphical  distance,  and  with  it  the  difference  between 
Occidental  civilization  and  Oriental  barbarism,  are 


NOTES 


259 


quickly  disappearing.  Civilization  which,  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  historical  development  of  human- 
ity  proceeded  from  East  to  West,  has  begun,  since 
the  French  Revolution,  its  backward  march  over  the 
globe.  Even  in  geographical  relations  there  has  en¬ 
tered  a  transformation  in  the  movement  of  life ;  the 
closed  circular  movement  took  the  place  of  the  cen¬ 
tripetal  movements  toward  progress  on  the  one  hand, 
and  toward  its  opposite,  degeneration,  on  the  other. 
The  geographical  center  of  culture,  which  relapsed 
for  centuries  in  a  death-like  rigidity,  after  it  had 
given  the  world  the  light  of  the  spirit  which  was  first 
kindled  there,  will  again  be  restored  to  life  and  influ¬ 
ence.  The  French  tricolor  already  flutters  proudly 
in  Egypt  and  Syria,  and  the  appellation  applied  by 
the  French  poet  to  the  Syrian  expedition  is  no  longer 

a  mere  poetical  expression,  but  a  prophetic  utter¬ 
ance. 

Napoleon  the  First,  who  had  undertaken  an  expe¬ 
dition  into  Egypt  and  the  Saint  Simonists  group, 
one  of  which  is  at  present  at  the  head  of  the  Suez 
enterprise,  have  already  recognized  how  important 
it  is  for  France  to  civilize  the  Orient.  The  French 
wars  in  the  Crimea  and  Italy  were  only  preparations 
for  the  solution  of  the  Oriental  problem.  This  solu¬ 
tion  consists  in  the  reconciliation  of  Occidental  cul¬ 
ture  with  that  of  the  Oriental  Semites  who  until  now 
have  formed  a  historical  typical  contrast  to  the  Indo- 
Germans.  Ernest  Renan  has  clearly  described  this 
contrast,  but  he  has  also  emphasized  the  fact  that 
the  Semites  possess  the  ability  to  awaken  once  more 


260 


NOTES 


from  spiritual  death  into  a  new  life  in  a  much  higher 
degree  than  the  Indo-Germans. 

After  the  work  on  the  Suez  Canal  is  completed  the 
interests  of  world  commerce  will  undoubtedly  demand 
the  establishment  of  depots  and  settlements  along 
the  road  to  India  and  China,  settlements  of  such  a 
character  as  will  transform  the  neglected  and  an¬ 
archic  state  of  the  countries  lying  along  this  road 
into  legal  and  cultivated  States.  This  can  occur  only 
under  the  military  protection  of  the  European  pow¬ 
ers.  Sagacious  French  diplomacy  has  always  planned 
to  annex  the  Orient  to  the  precincts  of  culture.  Un¬ 
doubtedly,  envy,  which  has  caused  the  French  to 
oppose  the  liberation  of  Italy,  will  also  effect  the 
French  Oriental  political  policy  with  desires  for  con¬ 
quest  and  domination.  The  French  have  learned, 
since  their  great  Revolution,  to  overcome  the  dualism 
of  the  Material  and  Ideal  in  social  life,  as  the  work 
from  which  I  have  quoted  indicates.  The  Material  in 
that  plan  does  not  exclude  the  Ideal,  and  the  latter  is 
not  a  mere  dream  but  has  a  Material  basis.  The  one 
who  appeals  to  a  higher  ideal  is  as  little  a  hypocrite 
because  he  has  also  material  interests  at  heart,  as  the 
one  who  sees  in  the  earthly  root  of  human  affairs,  the 
budding  forces  of  the  higher  spirit  is  a  dreamer. 

It  is  well  understood  that  we  speak  of  a  Jewish 
settlement  in  the  Orient.  We  do  not,  however,  mean 
to  imply  a  total  emigration  of  the  Occidental  Jews 
to  Palestine.  Even  after  the  establishment  of  a  Jew¬ 
ish  State,  the  majority  of  the  Jews  who  live  at  pres- 


NOTES  261 

ent  in  the  civilized  Occidental  countries  will  undoubt¬ 
edly  remain  where  they  are. 

The  Occidental  Jews,  who  have  only  recently 
broken  their  way  through  to  culture  and  have  ac¬ 
quired  an  honorable  civic  position,  will  not  abandon 
the  valuable  acquisition  so  quickly  even  if  the  res¬ 
toration  of  Judasa  were  more  than  a  pious  desire. 
Such  a  sacrifice  of  a  prize  acquired  with  great  effort 
is  hardly  to  be  expected  even  from  patriotic  Jews,  let 
alone  the  majority  of  our  “educated”  parvenues,  who 
have  succeeded  in  breaking  off  all  relations  with  the 
Jewish  family  and  their  unfortunate  brethren,  and 
who  are  proud  of  the  fact  that  they  have  turned  their 
back  on  the  misery  of  their  people.  Yet  this  will  not 
prevent  the  nobler  natures  among  them  from  interest¬ 
ing  themselves  more  deeply  in  the  people  whom  they 
really  do  not  know  any  more,  and  support  it  in  its 
historical  mission,  when  it  will  have  the  courage  to 
reclaim  its  ancient  fatherland  in  a  natural,  human 
way. 

There  has  been  a  central  unity  among  the  Jews  at 
all  times,  even  among  those  who  were  scattered  to 
the  very  confines  of  the  earth.  Jews  have  maintained 
a  relation  with  the  spiritual  center  wherever  it  was. 
No  nation  has  ever  felt  as  keenly  the  excitement  go¬ 
ing  on  in  the  spiritual  nerve-center  as  have  the  Jews. 
Every  spiritual  sensation  spread  rapidly  from  the 
center  to  the  extreme  periphery  of  the  national  or¬ 
ganism.  The  dispersion,  even  to  the  very  ends  of  the 
world,  had  not  hindered,  even  in  antiquity,  the  scat¬ 
tered  members  of  this  remarkable  people  from  par- 


262 


NOTES 


ticipating  in  every  national  undertaking,  from  shar¬ 
ing  the  fortunes  and  misfortunes  of  fate.  To-day, 
when  distance  is  no  more  an  obstacle  to  communica¬ 
tion,  it  is  of  little  consequence  to  a  Jewish  State 
whether  more  or  less  of  the  Jewish  race  dwells  within 
or  without  its  borders.  Already  during  the  existence 
of  the  old  Jewish  State,  many  Jews  lived  in  foreign 
countries.  The  Jew-hater  Haman  could  already  at 
the  time  of  the  Second  Temple  utter  the  words  which 
even  to-day  the  enemies  of  the  Jews  constantly  re¬ 
peat:  “There  is  a  nation  scattered  abroad  and  dis¬ 
persed  among  the  people.”  However,  there  is  hardly 
any  civilized  nation  to-day,  members  of  which  are 
not  found  in  foreign  lands,  either  as  foreigners  or  as 
naturalized  citizens.  As  long  as  a  Jewish  State  does 
not  exist  as  a  member  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
world,  the  Jews  who  live  in  exile  must  necessarily 
strive  to  obtain  naturalization  and  “emancipation”, 
though  they  by  no  means  abandon  the  hope  of  the 
restoration  of  the  Jewish  State.  The  nations  which 
are  no  more  under  the  tutelage  of  their  mediaeval 
Christian  war  lords  do  not  for  a  moment  hesitate  to 
grant  the  Jews  equal  rights,  to  which  they  are  justly 
entitled  for  their  unexampled  loyalty  and  fidelity  to 
their  nationality. 

Note  X 

The  Hebrew  newspaper  Hamagid ,  which  ap¬ 
pears  in  Lyck,  East  Prussia,  prints,  in  its  issue  of 
the  26th  of  March,  a  report  of  a  meeting  held  in 
Melbourne,  Australia,  in  December,  1861,  in  which 


NOTES 


263 


Christian  as  well  as  Jewish  notables  participated. 
The  President,  Lyons,  opened  the  meeting  and  de¬ 
clared  its  purpose  to  be,  “to  enable  the  Jews  to  ac¬ 
quire  land  on  Mount  Zion,  on  which  houses  for  the 
accommodation  of  Jewish  pilgrims  should  be  built, 
and  that  this  may  serve  as  the  first  step  toward  a 
Jewish  settlement  in  Palestine.”  After  him,  a  Jew¬ 
ish  scholar  spoke  in  Hebrew,  an  interpreter  translat¬ 
ing  his  speech  into  English.  He  spoke  on  the  same 
subject  as  a  Jewish  patriot,  and  his  address  was  en¬ 
thusiastically  received.  Then  a  Christian  minister 
addressed  the  audience  on  behalf  of  the  restoration 
of  the  Jews.  “To  which  nation,”  he  exclaimed, 
“should  the  Holy  Land  fall  as  an  inheritance?  To 
Turkey?  She  is  already  in  the  grip  of  death  and 
her  days  are  numbered.  To  France?  Russia  and 
England  will  prevent  it,  just  as  Russia  and  France 
will  object  to  the  rule  of  England;  and  France  will 
oppose  a  Russian  occupation.  No  one  should  in¬ 
herit  it  but  the  Jews,  who  will  thus  come  into  their 
own  patrimony,  the  land  which  their  ancestors  had 
acquired  with  the  assistance  of  God.”  Finally,  the 
Dean  of  the  Melbourne  University  declared  that  for 
years  he  had  continually  told  his  countrymen  that  it 
will  not  take  long  before  the  Jews  regain  possession 
of  the  land  which  belongs  to  them  and  which  was 
promised  to  them.  His  joy  will  be  great  to  live  to 
see  the  first  step  toward  the  carrying  out  of  his 
dream.  And  no  matter  how  small  the  beginning  may 
be,  he  was  confident  that  it  will  finally  lead  to  the 
great  goal.  Like  the  second  redemption  from  exile, 


264 


NOTES 


so  must  also  the  third  be  effected  in  a  natural  way, 
with  the  help  of  God,  and  it  is  the  sacred  duty  of 
Christians  to  help  the  Jews  in  their  endeavor.  It 
was  then  decided  to  appoint  a  Committee  for  the 
purpose  of  soliciting  contributions  throughout 
Australia  in  order  to  acquire  land  for  the  Jews  in 
the  Holy  Land. 

Before  this  report  was  published  in  East  Prussia, 
and  could  hardly  have  been  generally  known,  there 
appeared  the  third  part  of  the  work  of  Rabbi  Hirsh 
Kalischer — Emunoh  Yeshoroh — “The  Right  Faith”. 
The  opinions  of  three  great  Jewish  authorities,  which 
preface  it,  support  the  view  of  R.  Kalischer,  who  is 
in  total  agreement  with  the  Dean  of  Melbourne  Uni¬ 
versity,  that  the  return  from  the  third  exile  must 
take  place  in  a  natural  manner,  under  the  protection 
of  the  European  powers  and  with  the  help  of  our  in¬ 
fluential  race-brethren  who  seem  to  have  been  provi¬ 
dentially  called  to  their  high  position.  “The  first 
thing  to-day,”  says  the  author,  “is  to  found  a  Com¬ 
pany  for  Jewish  colonization  in  Palestine,  to  acquire 
land  and  prepare  it  for  settlement.”  “There  is  no 
greater  service  for  the  pious  Jew  to  perform,”  adds 
our  author,  “than  to  rebuild  the  ruins  of  the  Holy 
Land.” 

Postscript 

At  the  last  moment,  when  these  letters  and  notes 
had  already  left  the  press,  my  attention  was  called 
to  Fichte’s  attack  on  the  Jews,  in  the  Krewzzeitung , 
and  to  a  similar  attack  which  was  published  last 


NOTES 


265 


year  in  Berlin,  in  a  pamphlet,  entitled,  The  Jews 
and  the  German  State . 

I  wish  it  had  been  possible  for  me  to  have  seen  this 
Christian-German  product  before.  But  as  it  is  too 
late  for  detailed  analysis,  I  wish  to  remark  that  one 
glance  at  the  book  convinced  me  that  this  anony¬ 
mous  author,  recently  converted  to  the  Kreuzzei- 
tung’s  party,  is  only  a  “speculative”  atheist  and 
revolutionary,  with  whom  the  German  public  has 
certainly  little  sympathy. 


I 


✓ 


Date  Due 

Ns?  M 

i 

f:  i  0  ’I 

'&  A  4 

a.*.AV'  ,* 

f 

WGYi 

i?Of 5 

